Andrew Tilghman, fast becoming my favorite long-form journalist, has another fantastic, must-read piece in the Washington Monthly. It focuses on why the military's "best and brightest young officers" are leaving at an alarming rate (and yes, Iraq is part of it, but not the only part), and what the implications are of this exodus. Tilghman is a former reporter for the (independent) military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" and has a real feel for the community and the issues he covers. Within military and intel circles, the screwing over of some great people in the military has been a hot topic lately, and the article does a great job of explaining much of the situation. To wit:
Of course, every generation of young officers is critical of their superiors. But the botched management in Iraq and a sense of squandered momentum in Afghanistan have intensified those feelings among today's young officers. It's one thing for young officers in the 1980s or '90s to stand around at a training facility at Fort Polk, Louisiana, complaining about the higher-ups; it's another when junior officers have to see soldiers under their command dying in missions they believe are strategically flawed or futile.
There is a similar problem in the intelligence community, albeit one affected much less by the strains particular to the uniformed services. On one hand, the pressures aren't as bad for intel professionals (especially regarding deployments, obviously); on the other hand, it's much easier for civilians to leave, *especially* with security clearances being so lucrative in the private sector, so the departure rate may even be worse. Either way, this administration is crippling this nation's ability to defend itself in the long term. Crippling.
