Trouble at the War College
I’ve been impressed that throughout the disastrous Bush years, the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute has continued to host work by scholars who’ve been critical of the Bush administration — in some instances (Jeffrey Record) scathingly so. But according to Tom Ricks (via Farley and Klein) things aren’t going so smoothly.
An SSI clampdown would be very bad for the country. Effective government requires serious, professional, independent research. The US political system, to be frank, often doesn’t provide very effective government. But our military is an important exception to that trend. Much more like a Northern European civilian agency, the military is well-funded, well-regarded by the public, and enjoys high morale. The senior managers in the military are career professionals — the generals and admirals — and though ultimate authority rests (as it should) with civilian politicians, there’s a strong sense (as there should be) that the military should be engaged in autonomous, proactive thinking about its enduring mission. The Strategic Studies Institute is part of that system of rigor and professionalism and it’d be a very bad sign for its integrity to be compromised.
19 Responses to “Trouble at the War College”
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January 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
So…much like a Northern European civilian agency, the U.S. military is rife with proselytizing Christianists, homophobic bigots, rapists that prowl its central training institutions, and, and…shall I go on?
January 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
To be fair, the events discussed happened in 2005, three years and an insane SecDef ago.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
That the SSI was worried isn’t a surprise. It’s just another of the many examples of how in the Bush Administration, loyalty wasn’t the main thing, it was the only thing.
Thankfully, we hold regularly scheduled, relatively clean elections, and no majority is permanent.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I’d say only with regard to homophobia has the US Army (I can’t speak for the Navy or Air Force) trailed the nation as a whole in moving in a more liberal direction.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I actually do admire our armed services, and the personnel in them. I just can’t abide the kind of puffery that one is all too often hit with whenever one gets too close to the military intelligentsia and its recondite institutions of praetorian pythagoreanism.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Not surprising given how poorly led the military was for most of the war in Iraq, and the missed opportunities in Afghanistan.
Our military imprisons low ranking soldiers for abuse of prisoners. Yet this same leadership protects and gives awards to commanding officers and civilian overseers who developed the policy to torture prisoners. Strange organization.
January 7th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
MY is going to take an ass whipping for this one. The military does anything right? Banish the thought!
January 7th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I’d like to hear what he has to say about Rumsfeld.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
So, let’s see now, if you fund people lavishly, continually remind them how much you adore them and respect them, and the only things they actually have to do without fail are to stand erect and occasionally be neatly dressed…uh, ok, I’m lost here, where is the big success?
Excuse me, but am I the only one who remembers that the US military just went up against Iraqi civilians and got their butt kicked?
Matt’s rather florid little fantasy about how great they are illustrates pretty vividly the answer to his question “Are we doomed?” Yes, we are.
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