The Atlantic

The Military Doesn’t Want to Get Involved

Political partisans are trying to benefit from the armed forces’ popularity. But America’s most trusted institution got that way by staying out of civilian affairs.
Source: Getty / Paul Spella / The Atlantic

In this summer of crisis and political uncertainty, an unsettling number of people in civilian life are trying to get the U.S. military on their side. First, President Donald Trump brought along General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—dressed in combat fatigues no less—on a march from the White House to a photo op on the other side of Lafayette Square in June. Milley quickly and unequivocally . In his apology, the general said that, for members of the

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