Some U.S. military general officers match exceptional intellect to exceptional leadership. Indo-Pacific Command’s Adm. Sam Paparo offers one such example. As does retired Gen. Jim Mattis.
However, like the rest of us, general officers are not infallible. Some, such as Michael Flynn and Kenneth McKenzie, cared more about politics than the mission. Some, such as Gen. David Petraeus, offered a mix of rare genius and excessive egomania. Some, such as retired general turned Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, were promoted too far beyond their professional capacity. So, while we should listen to high-ranking military officers who have deep professional experience, we should also do so without assuming they are right in what they say.
This bears note in light of retired generals who are now saying negative things about former President Donald Trump. Much of the media has decided that these generals are heirs to Pythia who must be trusted without question.
Retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, for example, gets far too much unquestioning deference from the media. As chairman, Milley’s responsibility was to provide effective military advice to the president, first Trump and then President Joe Biden, and to ensure the military’s status as an apolitical entity. To his credit, Milley apologized after joining Trump’s political stunt in walking to a church across from the White House in June 2020. At least then, Milley recognized that he could not risk being perceived as engaging in partisan political activities.
The problem is Milley soon thereafter decided to become quite an open political figure. He did so with incessant leaks of highly critical anecdotes concerning Trump. Whether offering truth or not, these leaks were incompatible with the apolitical requirements of Milley’s office. They should have led Biden to relieve him.
Now that he is out of office, Milley can say whatever he wants. However, there’s no question that his relentless politicking has made life more difficult for his successor, Gen. C.Q. Brown. Albeit a highly impressive officer, Brown must manage a vast range of global contingencies and operational demands against an overstretched defense budget. However, thanks to Milley and other retired general officers who have entered the 2024 election fray, Brown must now also prepare for Trump’s return to office in a condition where the former president may mistrust his senior military advisers and simultaneously wish to politicize the military for his own ends. Put simply, Brown faces a perfect storm of global crises and domestic political complexity, and Milley has helped make it.
This is not to say, however, that Republicans should deride retired general officers who dislike Trump as enemies of the state for doing so. Take former White House chief of staff and retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, for example. Kelly is again at the forefront of the news over his claims that Trump repeatedly praised Hitler and derided veterans. By making these claims, Kelly has certainly entered the partisan battlefield and must accept its slings and arrows. Considering their claims and the election, Trump has every right to criticize Kelly, Milley, Mattis, or anyone else and call them liars if he believes they are. Still, Trump is wrong to call Kelly a “total degenerate.”
Kelly was instrumental in the Marine Corps’ highly successful pacification of Iraq’s Anbar province between 2006-2009. Once held hostage to fanatics from al Qaeda in Iraq who had terrorized Anbari tribes and civilians into obedience, Anbar was made peaceful by a Marine strategy to simultaneously kill terrorists and align Anbaris to retake their territory from the jihadists. Kelly, then-brigadier general, took career risks against the military’s bureaucracy by devolving operational authority to his battalion commanders to do what they saw as best in their various areas of responsibility. It worked, and Anbar, and perhaps also Iraq, were saved for it.
More importantly, Kelly has at least earned the eternal right not to be called a degenerate. He has been called as much by those on the political Left as well as by Trump. After all, in life and loss, Kelly has given much more to this nation than most of us.
Serving 41 years in uniform, Kelly inculcated in both his sons his sense of national service. They followed him into the Marine Corps. One of Kelly’s sons, First Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010 alongside numerous other Marines (who, like Robert Kelly, deserve your passing attention). Indeed, Kelly’s unit, the 3rd battalion-5th Marines, has suffered the highest combat casualties of any U.S. military unit since 9/11. I may be biased here, but I think the former and future commander in chief can respond to Kelly without calling him a degenerate.
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The basic point is military service deserves special respect, even as general officers do not deserve reflexive civilian worship.
However, as he seeks to become commander in chief again, Trump should at least attempt to rise above the degenerate rhetoric fray.