It is still a dereliction of duty to not speak the truth, be it in private or in public -- their duty to the Constitution, the American people and the people that serve under them outweighs their duty to the Commander in Chief and their own hard-won careers.

Remember the Nixon AG's who resigned rather than execute the Saturday Night Massacre? They did the right thing. No, it's not easy to throw away a career of 20 or 40 years and the only adult life you have known -- but if the Joint Chiefs and their staff need to pull a Shinseki in order to remedy this fool's errand and avoid making the same mistakes over and over, so be it.