Posted on Jul 27, 2014
Should the Commander in Chief have military experience?
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This is just a question and not meant to disrespect anybody.
While I was in the Military (1980-88) I served under the Presidents unquestionably.
As a Veteran I often sit and think.
Being Commander in Chief and asking our soldiers to put their life on the line. Shouldn't you have served before asking our Military to do something you never have?
With all due respect. I just believe we should have a Military Requirement before you can be Commander in Chief.
What do you think?
While I was in the Military (1980-88) I served under the Presidents unquestionably.
As a Veteran I often sit and think.
Being Commander in Chief and asking our soldiers to put their life on the line. Shouldn't you have served before asking our Military to do something you never have?
With all due respect. I just believe we should have a Military Requirement before you can be Commander in Chief.
What do you think?
Posted 10 y ago
This is a duplicate discussion. Click below to see more on this topic.
I feel it should be law that all political office members from president on down should have to have served in the military before they can be voted into office. If these people are going to have the power to decide who and when we go to war they should know what it is like to lead in the military. Far too many of our leaders have never served, and neither have their children yet they vote to send ours to war. <div>I recall at the height of the war in 2006 when politicians were considering a draft or mandatory conscription service. However they were silent when asked if their own children would be subject to the requirements of such a requirement.</div><div>A doctor must go to med school before they can legally practice medicine so the president should have to be a veteran before they can be commander in chief.</div>
Responses: 76
Call me OCD, but look at that nasty looking salute the Airman is giving the POTUS. Even Reagan's salute is more crisp than that, lol.
But yes, in the perfect world I would expect the POTUS to have military experience. Head coaches have to have experience in their respected sports. CEOs have to have experience in their respective fields, eye. So if POTUS wants to be CiC, then he should have experience in the military.
But yes, in the perfect world I would expect the POTUS to have military experience. Head coaches have to have experience in their respected sports. CEOs have to have experience in their respective fields, eye. So if POTUS wants to be CiC, then he should have experience in the military.
Yes..however, we'd have to change the requirements for President. And we'd have to better define "experience". Actual combat experience--where someone is trying to kill you and you try to kill them instead sounds more legitimate than being a desk jockey at camp podunk. Similarly, serving in a combat zone might have more credibility than working at the PX or entertainment services. At a minimum, some form of national service--service beyond self is what I look for...
It should be MANDATORY for the Commander in Chief to have Military experience!!!!!!!!!!!!
So he or she would have some military bearing and a sense of how the military operates, but should heavily rely on his or her top military advisers, and let them do their job WITHOUT micro managing them!!!!!!!
So he or she would have some military bearing and a sense of how the military operates, but should heavily rely on his or her top military advisers, and let them do their job WITHOUT micro managing them!!!!!!!
Would I prefer they had some experience, sure. But I do not expect it. We are a volunteer force and have built ourselves into an elite military because of it. By expecting others to join just so they can fill a box for future endeavors leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The military has a hard enough time screening out folks who can't cut it without adding others who have no care other than to have the bullet on their resume.
NO, but there should definitely be a moral and intellectual test since C-in-C is basically an officer. Such a requirement would have spared the US from the likes of Reagan and GW Bush nearly destroying this nation, its economy and its society.
I feel that military service in leadership roles will help the potential President deal with military matters as well as non-military matters, but even those who never served can make the critical decisions.
I think more than anything else a President needs the best advisors that he can find and lately our Presidents have not had the best advisors.
The President ends up making those decisions, just like in WWII to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I am sure he got more advice than he could ever use on that decision but ultimately he made that decision and it worked out to end the war at a supreme cost of lives.
I don't like how President Obama conducts business but I do applaud him on giving the green light on the bin Laden mission. Many people think it was a no brainer but there are more factors to decisions than the average person who has never served can imagine.
I think more than anything else a President needs the best advisors that he can find and lately our Presidents have not had the best advisors.
The President ends up making those decisions, just like in WWII to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I am sure he got more advice than he could ever use on that decision but ultimately he made that decision and it worked out to end the war at a supreme cost of lives.
I don't like how President Obama conducts business but I do applaud him on giving the green light on the bin Laden mission. Many people think it was a no brainer but there are more factors to decisions than the average person who has never served can imagine.
I think it is important that the President be well-versed and well-invested in the American experience. They should have lived long enough to have gained wisdom through experience, worked hard not only to achieve goals, but maintained a level of success, and yes...spent enough time in the uniform to understand and appreciate the challenges therein.
NO! While I love some of the Military Men that have become President I am well aware of how easily that can become a Fascist Military Dictatorship. We need not look further that our neighbors in Central and South America to see how that can turn out and we are dealing with the Ramifications of that with the "Illegal" Aliens fleeing there to here to escape the Turmoil that created.
Thought: No Presidents served in combat in Korea, Vietnam, and so far, in the Middle Eastern Wars.
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