Interesting, how things change...

Just flicking through my well thumbed copy of Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer, looking for some interesting arguments to back up my thesis re: Iraq and Al-Qaeda, when I came across this little tidbit:

It also is not good enough to keep inferring that only those who have been in the military can criticize military policy and operations, which now seems to be the default response to criticism by many in the Department of Defense ... As Ralph Peters recalled for his countrymen, "The American tradition has been to despise and distrust the military. Our founding fathers debated and debated again the wisdom of maintaining a standing army of even a few battalions. . . . Soldiers were regarded as incapable do-nothings with their snouts in the national trough." Only postwar conscription made "military experience" common for Americans and for some of today's U.S. politicians.