Four Star Arrogance - Why LGBT American's Need to Be Worried

Last week's debacle that led to the resignation of General McChrystal ought to be setting off alarm bells among gay activists because the arrogant contempt displayed by McChrystal in his mockery of President Obama and other senior civilian leaders to whom the top military brass is supposed to report and who by law are to control the military may likely sink any repeal of DADT - even if the abortion like "compromise" passed by the House of Representatives manages to pass the Senate. Why? Because the senior military brass have largely forgotten that they report to the civilian leaders and not vice versa. The very "compromise" passed by the House ultimately leaves far, far too much of the decision with the top military brass, most of whom strike me as homophobes. Personally, it would not shock me in the least to see a preordained study - ordered by and orchestrated by the military - recommend DADT be retained even though most of the voters in the USA want the ban on gays in the military repealed. The senior military staff simply do not believe that they are answerable to anyone. McChrystal's forced resignation may be a wake up call to some senior brass, but we cannot count on it. An op-ed in the Washington Post looks at the growing problem with the nation's top senior military commanders. Here are some highlights:

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Long wars are antithetical to democracy. Protracted conflict introduces toxins that inexorably corrode the values of popular government. Not least among those values is a code of military conduct that honors the principle of civilian control while keeping the officer corps free from the taint of politics. . . . . . But indications that the military's professional ethic is eroding, evident in the disrespect for senior civilians expressed by McChrystal and his inner circle, should set off alarms.

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[W]hen it comes to war, the American people avert their eyes from difficult truths. Largely unaffected by events in Afghanistan and Iraq and preoccupied with problems much closer to home, they have demonstrated a fine ability to tune out war. Soldiers (and their families) are left holding the bag.

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Throughout history, circumstances such as these have bred praetorianism, warriors becoming enamored with their moral superiority and impatient with the failings of those they are charged to defend. The smug disdain for high-ranking civilians casually expressed by McChrystal and his chief lieutenants -- along with the conviction that "Team America," as these officers style themselves, was bravely holding out against a sea of stupidity and corruption -- suggests that the officer corps of the United States is not immune to this affliction.

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To imagine that replacing McChrystal with Gen. David H. Petraeus will fix the problem is wishful thinking. To put it mildly, Petraeus is no simple soldier. He is a highly skilled political operator, whose name appears on Republican wish lists as a potential presidential candidate in 2012. Far more significant, the views cultivated within Team America are shared elsewhere.

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The day the McChrystal story broke, an active-duty soldier who has served multiple combat tours offered me his perspective on the unfolding spectacle. The dismissive attitude expressed by Team America, he wrote, "has really become a pandemic in the Army." . . . . "Pretty soon you have an entire organization believing that their leader is the 'Savior' and that everyone else is stupid and incompetent, or not committed to victory." In this soldier's view, things are likely to get worse before they get better. "Senior officers who condone this kind of behavior . . . they're generally so arrogant that they think everyone needs to be just like them anyway."

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The responsibility facing the American people is clear. They need to reclaim ownership of their army. They need to give their soldiers respite, by insisting that Washington abandon its de facto policy of perpetual war. . . . . [Otherwise] the damage to the army and to American democracy will be severe.