Butt Out Mullen

Another sign of our eroding democracy is evidenced by military leaders steering policy and public opinion. This may be due in part to politicians having become weak, beholden to money-power.

A civilian-based democracy should strongly discourage pronouncements of military officers. It is not the military's place to say, "we should do this." or "we should do that." Yet Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen is doing exactly that saying,

This right now doesn't speak to either time lines or timetables, based on my understanding of where we are.

Mullen, asked about the possibility of withdrawing all combat troops within two years, said,

I think the consequences could be very dangerous.... It [is] hard to say exactly what would happen. I'd worry about any kind of rapid movement out and creating instability where we have stability. We're engaged very much right now with the Iraqi people. The Iraqi leadership is starting to generate the kind of political progress that we need to make. The economy is starting to move in the right direction. So all those things are moving in the right direction...

There is a fine line between advising and voicing policy positions. The line should be that military leaders advise political representatives and their staff, but do not advise through the public mass media.

Sources:

Associated Press, Troop withdrawal timeline concerns Pentagon chief, July 20, 2008.