A View From another Hill

nojay

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 27, 2008 · 3:43 PM PDT

2008/06/27 · 15:43

I'm British. And I'm puzzled.

Why are Americans on both the Left and Right so enamoured of their military forces and its senior commanders? Why is it considered "the right thing to do" to put them in charge of civilian affairs in the US, to ascribe to them the automatic ability to provide leadership and competency in fields such as "national security" once they have taken off their uniforms?

I'm British. I'm interested in my home country's political life and I could not for the life of me name a current high-ranking member of the British Armed Forces -- Army, Navy or Air Force. Not one. No-one has entered politics after serving in a high-ranking military position in the UK for decades, possibly even centuries (Lord Wellington is the first that comes to mind and he made for a very indifferent Prime Minister. Before that... uh, Cromwell?).

The same is true is virtually every other democracy in the world; senior military men do not enter politics. The US people however publicly worship serving generals and admirals and demand they step forward to run their country when they retire from military service, and I find this strange and somewhat worrying in a country that in its founding days created the Cincinnati as a bulwark against such ideas gaining traction in the nascent US Army.

RSS