Former defence secretary Robert Gates, who stepped down last year, argued that the general officer corps had become bloated and a wasteful drain on the Pentagon budget, and he pushed to scale back the number of generals and admirals.
Gates also voiced concern over a growing gap between the volunteer force and the rest of American society, which critics worry feeds a belief among some officers that rules do not apply to them because they have put their lives on the line, unlike civilians back home.
To counter the trend, there are calls by some commentators to restore conscription, or least some kind of national service, to improve civilian-military ties and bind the armed forces closer to society.
The scandals of misconduct gained renewed attention after the most prominent officer of his generation, Petraeus, abruptly stepped down as CIA chief last week.
No general was as revered and prominent as Petraeus, the soldier-scholar who was credited – particularly among commentators on the political right – with rescuing the war effort in Iraq.
His successor in Afghanistan, General John Allen, now finds himself embroiled in the scandal, with the Pentagon inspector general launching an investigation into potentially “inappropriate” emails between Allen and a key figure in the case, Jill Kelley.
Tom Ricks, journalist and author of a new book “The Generals”, contends that the Army officer corps has grown unaccountable and that it bears a share of the blame for disastrous mistakes in the Iraq war.
“We tend to venerate the military these days unthinkingly and that’s not good for the military or the country,” Ricks said recently.
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