Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
The bigger (and more important) question is whether our system can generate senior leaders who do NOT fit this mold. Can one get four stars without being totally subservient to civilian leaders?
The key word in Steve's question seems to be "totally." It's a matter of degree -- we want our military leaders to be subordinate to civilian control, but we also want them to provide sound advice and counsel to the civilians who are the constitutional leaders. We certainly don't want our four stars (or any other leaders) to be totally subservient... but, at the end of the day, we also want our military leaders to stand up and salute when a decision has been made by the civilian leadership -- hopefully after the military's sound advice and counsel has been considered.

The Taguba article brings home the additional consideration -- when leaders (civilian or military) act in such a way that is illegal or immoral. This is the time for subordinates to depart from subservience and to stand up for what is right and moral. The Taguba article ends with such a situation:

Taguba went on, “There was no doubt in my mind that this stuff”—the explicit images—“was gravitating upward. It was standard operating procedure to assume that this had to go higher. The President had to be aware of this.” He said that Rumsfeld, his senior aides, and the high-ranking generals and admirals who stood with him {Rumsfeld} as he misrepresented what he knew about Abu Ghraib had failed the nation.

“From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service,” Taguba said. “And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable.”