By Patrick Appel
A reader writes:
The military is an inherently conservative organization by its very nature. The GOP has tried to take advantage of this and has subtly encouraged an increased politicization of the military, believing that it served both national and GOP interests. For example, canning General Shinseki because he disagreed with Rusted and promoting Myer because he was more open to the entire GOP political agenda.What Obama may be trying to do is to move the military back into its more traditional, less political military role. How this would be moving the military to the "left" isn't clear to me. The military should be above and outside of politics and the fact that Hilzoy can talk about it moving right or left suggests how degraded the relationship between civilian and military leadership has become under Bush.