By Grant Golub
A series of hawkish comments about China from top U.S. military officials in recent weeks has put the Pentagon back in the spotlight. Accordingly, most analysts have naturally focused on how these assertions fit within the new Cold War against China.
Yet pinpointing what those claims suggest about the Biden administration’s national security policy overlooks a larger point about the role of the military in American politics: one of a powerful Washington stakeholder with its own policy agenda. And like any influential interest group, it has its own views on foreign policy issues and meticulously tries to advance them. However, the fixation with casting the military as apolitical has allowed it to largely avoid the scrutiny the top brass deserve.
During the Trump presidency, there were many concerns about the politicization of the armed forces and the strains this put on civil-military relations.
This piece was originally published in Stars and Stripes on December 2, 2021. Read more HERE.