Speaking of admirals . . .

Got a nice hand-written note from Joe Sestak, now Democratic representative of the 7th district of PA but formerly a Vice Admiral of the US Navy.

He thanked me for the discussion with the roles and missions panel of the House Armed Services Committee week before last.

Joe was always about the slickest admiral you'd ever meet. Few were surprised he went into politics or that he was immediately successful at it. A "political flag officer" to some (like Petraeus is often accused of being; I find these officers are exactly the ones who best see war within the context of everything else), but to me, it's hugely important to see former officers like Sestak or Geoff Davis of KY get into Congress. The low level of former officers in that body is a serious deficit, because Congress needs all the expertise it can get on this complex subject.

I found it unsurprisingly that a recent MSM story on Petraeus' testimony quoted Sestak making the same point I did recently in a blog post: that it's a bit spooky to see the White House outsourcing leadership of the Iraq effort to a general, no matter how talented he is (i.e., the whole notion that Petraeus didn't vet his findings with the White House prior to testifying--like that would be something wrong!). It takes a former military to make that kind of point with confidence. I mean, it's not like Sestak would need to have his staffer hold up a blown-up photo of him with Petraeus in Iraq to prove his bona fides on the subject.

People might assume a former mil guy would be a soft touch on the military, but the truth is, they tend to be the most usefully skeptical, meaning they can separate the wheat from the chaff instead of simply seeing everything as one or the other.

As I've said earlier, I expect (like Kristol recently argued) to see a lot of great political leaders arise from the military in the post-9/11 paradigm. That'll give us a smarter Congress and--by extension--better presidencies.

Comments

[jamzo]

it is interesting that the present generation of military leaders entering politics are shestak and clark and they democrats while our current president entered office with the strong endorsement of the military establishment

[Keith_Indy]

I would suspect many military leaders are not yet ready to give up their chosen career to enter politics.

I also expect a great number to go into education, the media, and think tanks. Some of my favorite teachers growing up were vets, WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

[Eric Chen]

There's an organized and growing active-duty and veterans military community within Columbia University and the larger (student, faculty, alumni) Columbia community. They are a relatively new group but quite ambitious about taking part in the national discourse and influencing the future.

[William R. Cumming]

Always remember that the promotion of military officers to flag rank in the US always requires the approval of the Senate. Although it seldom happens that the Senate refuses those recommended for promotion by the President and Executive Branch it happens. Thus, politics is always "war" by other means. Should be more retired officers in politics in the US. The problem is that seldom does the public trust the career military officer to be in touch with their real concerns. Think of the exceptions that made it and the many who did not. Ike made it but McClellan (sic) did not. Although as we now know the 1864 election was very very close. Perhaps victories made a difference. Predict just like those with first generation great wealth the American people will continue to reject retired flag rank officers for high elected office. If all flaq rank officers are technically subject to recall perhaps that standard should be made clearer so that"dual office" restrictions don't apply. By the way has anyone seen a good source of recent statistics on percentage of junior officers produced by the Academies, ROTC, and OCS? Who is fighting in Iraq?

[TEJ]

One of the current CNO's first actions upon arrival was to remove the Deputy CNO (Sestak) due to 'poor command climate'. Understand that the tension has followed him to DC. Time will tell whether Sestak is a hard charging change agent or just a bear to work for.