Self-righteous warmongers phony patriots

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | October 21, 2007 | GREG JAMES

[Daveinyork]

I’ve been reading a lot about the last century of the Roman Republic, which ended with the victory of Octavian, and the beginning of the principate. One of the weaknesses of the Roman republic that was not repeated by our founding fathers was the blurring of the military with the political. In the Roman Republic, a political career almost always included some military service as a tribune, legate, or commander. Almost all of the military commanders were senators. This created a situation in the last century of the republic in which Roman legions developed more loyalty to their commanders, such as Marius, Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar. They all used their legions, in one way or another, to take power in Rome, and undermine the republic.

Our founding fathers placed the military firmly outside the political realm, subject to the civilian elected officials, specifically the President. Our officer corps’ loyalty is to the Republic, rather than to any specific politician, or group of politicians.

Elected official will make decisions regarding war, and those officials will likely never have any military experience, although, they would be wise to get advice from people who have. But the decision rests on elected civilian officials. This does not make them phony patriots. It makes them lawfully elected representatives of the United States of America, duly, and Constitutionally authorized to command our armed forces.

[avacado]

That’s exactly right! That is exactly what a real soldier will say.