Let a thousand voices sing. The good Dr.’s points are fine for a pre-IT world – but the educated citizen can find out all they want now days via the intertubes. After awhile, those retired officers that only seem to chirp up during election cycles and then sound like a talking-point on loop lose their credibility. The marketplace of ideas can be efficient like that
The modern version of this came with retired Admiral William Crowe, who stood next to then Gov. Clinton in the middle of the the ’92 election and gave him the top cover he needed at the right point – got an appt. at the Court of St. James as a thanks and we were off to the races. Say what you want about the politics of it – and you know me and USNI, I would prefer if you didn’t – but at least ADM Crowe was a class act about it all. I don’t think you can say that about much of what we have seen this decade.
The key is for others to speak up in response as much as needed – and for other retired officers to counter the excess and call their peers to account. There was a lot of credibility lost in the last election – I think the excess will take care of itself as we go forward. The best antidote for speech you think is wrong is more speech; just be an adult about it.
There is also a line of thought that not all opinion is political – though it may go against a politician’s opinion.
To wander into my point – I will, ahem, form up with FOD on this one subject as I read Dr. Snider’s ‘lil paper as a discussion of a “Food Trough” problem; but I don’t think some pre-fall of the Berlin Wall central registry idea is the solution. Don’t make people qualify to keep their 1st Amendment rights; they earned it.
Now, a cooling off period of say 5 years after retirement for all GOFO or SES from working for any privately or publicly held company or subsidiary that conducts more than $500 million annually, adjusted yearly for inflation, with the DoD …. now were talking about sump’n!
