And its intervention in Haiti, even if successful militarily, has not produced a thriving democracy south of our borders, though it is hard to blame the Clinton administration for that fact, or for giving Haitians a chance to take charge of their own lives. These issues are now history. All but the last predate the Clinton administration. Bush and Cheney have only offered ideas for how to reduce the deployment to the Balkans. Yet that deployment is already quite modest and has played a hand in pacifying a region important to the U.S. while contributing at least indirectly to the downfall of Serb despot Slobodan Milosevic as well.
Military officers have every right to their own political views.
Yet by their collective public posture, they should not suggest to the American people that there is an obvious pro-defense candidate in this year's presidential race. In fact, there are two.