THEY MAKE YOU TAKE AN OATH TO THE CONSTITUTION: THEY DON’T MAKE YOU READ IT
JAMES JOYNER AND BUTCH BRACKNELLOCTOBER 31, 2022
Officers in the U.S. armed forces take an oath to the constitution upon commissioning and renew it each time they are promoted to a new rank. In doing so, they pledge their loyalty to the country and their subordination to its laws. This oath is central to maintaining healthy civil-military relations, but it is not enough. As repeated crises over the last several years have shown, the military’s fealty to the constitution cannot be expected to save American democracy from presidents who violate their own oath to it.
The recent open letter in these pages signed by every living former secretary of defense except Dick Cheney and every living former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff except retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton demonstrates the strength of U.S. military’s commitment to civilian control. The signatories include those who served under six presidents of both parties, and all four of the longstanding military services. Especially noteworthy is their embrace of Peter Feaver’s dictum that “Elected (and appointed) civilians have the right to be wrong.” This pithy statement means, essentially, that perfection in decision-making is not required — only sobriety, steadfastness, competence, and integrity, supported by a constitutionally accountable political mandate.
These high-level principles, however, do not tell the full story about the complexity of civil-military relations on a month-to-month or year-to-year basis. Both Congress and the courts have significant roles in shaping defense policy through substantive statutes, appropriations acts, and judicial orders, but these are of little direct concern to the rank and file. Civilian control of the military is, as a practical matter, exercised through the chain of command, which runs to the president as commander-in-chief. Neither laws nor court decisions are self-executing. Until the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff turn Congress’s will or a court’s mandate into policy orders, they have little direct effect.
https://warontherocks.com/2022/10/they-make-you-take-an-oath-to-the-constitution-they-dont-make-you-read-it/
