Former DOD chiefs warn of strain in ‘civil-military relations’

A group of former Pentagon chiefs and chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have penned a new letter warning of risks of political instability and the importance of civilian-military relations in an unstable environment –  along with the potential for misuse of the military.

The retired civilian and military officials cite political polarization in the U.S. – as well as ‘the first election in over a century when the peaceful transfer of political power was disrupted and in doubt.’

It was a reference to former President Donald Trump’s repeated claims of election fraud, and his refusal for weeks to authorize a transition after networks called the election for Joe Biden. 

They also refer to factors including the pandemic, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and civil unrest as part of an ‘exceptionally challenging civil-military environment.’

Top officials serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations, including Trump’s, joined in the letter. 

‘Many of the factors that shape civil-military relations have undergone extreme strain in recent years. Geopolitically, the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ramping up of great power conflict mean the U.S. military must simultaneously come to terms with wars that ended without all the goals satisfactorily accomplished while preparing for more daunting competition with near-peer rivals,’ they wrote, in a reference to tensions with China.

‘Socially, the pandemic and the economic dislocations have disrupted societal patterns and put enormous strain on individuals and families. Politically, military professionals confront an extremely adverse environment characterized by the divisiveness of affective polarization that culminated in the first election in over a century when the peaceful transfer of political power was disrupted and in doubt. Looking ahead, all of these factors could well get worse before they get better,’ according to the op-ed, published in War on the Rocks. 

Signing onto the letter are former Trump Defense Secretaries James Mattis and Mark Esper, who Trump fired weeks before leaving office. Mattis went public with his severe doubts about Trump before the election. 

Two Trump Secretaries of Defense, Mark Esper and James Mattis, signed on

Esper wrote a memoir after leaving government and described clashes with Trump, who wanted to use the military to put down George Floyd protests in 2020.

He told the Washington Post: ‘The president is up and down out of his chair, red-faced, moving his arms around expressing things. He’s swearing at us. He’s calling us losers. … And we get to this point where he settles in his chair and the room gets a little quiet, and he leans in and looks at [chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] General [Mark] Milley and says, ‘Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?’ And the question just hangs there. I think we were all taken aback. It’s just so far out of bounds,’ he said. 

The group calls civilian control of the military ‘part of the bedrock foundation of American democracy. The democratic project is not threatened by the existence of a powerful standing military so long as civilian and military leaders — and the rank-and-file they lead — embrace and implement effective civilian control,’ they write. 

 The document on several occasions stresses the limits of the military, including limitations on carrying out illegal orders.

‘In practice, the power to declare a policy/order/action illegal or unconstitutional is decisive because the military is obligated (by law and by professional ethics) to refuse to carry out an illegal or unconstitutional policy/order/action,’ they write. 

The Post reported that the letter grew from conversations between former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey and scholar Peter Feaver. 

‘We realized that there was a need for a restatement of what civilian control means, and how it applies,’ said Feaver.