General McChrystal and Military Professionalism

In earlier times, there was a close relationship between the military and our elected officials. In fact, ten of the twenty-two US presidents elected in the nineteenth century had been generals. All Republican presidents between the Civil War and 1900 were former Union generals, except for McKinley. He was too young and had only been a major.

Our founders admired the Roman Republic, especially that citizens answered the call to arms, unlike the standing armies of the Empire. They opposed standing armies and extolled the use of militias. That is really what the Second Amendment was about. We would have no redcoats.

Article 17 of the North Carolina Constitution adopted December 18, 1776, made the idea perfectly clear:

"17. That the people have a right to bear arms, for the defense of the State; and as standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."

By the late nineteenth century, however, the country was moving away from the militia model and increasingly in the direction of military professionalism. By the time the leading generals and admirals of World War II received their professional training at the US Service Academies, the dominant idea was that a force led by professionals trained in the science of warfare but subordinate to elected and appointed civilian leaders offered the best approach to civilian control. Perhaps the extreme example of such subordination was the case of George C. Marshall, who never voted, even after he was appointed to the position of Secretary of State.

Fortunately, many of our senior military leaders still understand the concept:

“We do not have the right, nor should we ever assume the prerogative, to cast doubt upon the ability or mock the motives of our civilian leaders, elected or appointed,” Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observed about General McChrystal. “We are and must remain a neutral instrument of the state, accountable to and respectful of those leaders, no matter which party holds sway or which person holds a given office.”

Amen!