Muhammad Ali Jinnah Quotes
Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people. You do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted.
Jinnah, Muhammad Ali. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Speeches and Statements as Governor-General of Pakistan, 1947-1948. Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1989, p. 225.
The only soldier ever so honored
In principle few disagree. However, in practice the norm of American polity is that the civilian leaders must consult the military and or intelligence leaders and take their advice seriously. If they President and his civilian leadership to not take the advice, they pay a heavy political price as there is a sometimes contradictory norm that says that you must allow the military experts to run the battles. In the given case, the Iraq War, the President and Vice President made the decision to invade Iraq. However, if we believe them literally, they were heavily influenced by the intelligence agencies who assured them that Iraq had a nuclear weapon about to be completed. It was a “slam dunk” in the words of the CIA director— {633093}. JFK as a young president did not feel that he could override the CIA and DOD people who had assured him that the Bay of Pigs lading would trigger a massive uprising in Cuba. He was misled but had to take the responsibility for the fiasco where not a single person in Cuba rebelled. The President can and should override the best military advice when it is wrong, but how does he know? If he does, he always pays a short term price—even if he is right, for that is not clear for some time. Politics in a democracy is not easy in a democracy.
Arias abolished the army in Costa Rica.
President James Madison expressed a similar sentiment in his first inaugural address.
While this is so in theory, both legislative and executive elected officials often abdicate their responsibility to set policy to the civil servants and Pentagon brass who write the regulations, and interpret the laws and Executive orders. In modern government, there are so many policies that need to be made that Congress and the President and Cabinet often don’t even know the issue exists much less what the national policy is. The Congress and President can choose to make specific policy on whatever they wish, but the Civil Servants as a de facto matter end up making the rest of the policy decisions. When there is Congressional gridlock, Congress can’t make very many policy decisions, so ironically, the civil servants and Pentagon brass make even more of the polices of the government.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a barrister, politician and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, and then as the Dominion of Pakistan's first Governor-General until his death. He is revered in Pakistan as the Quaid-i-Azam ("Great Leader") and Baba-i-Qaum ("Father of the Nation"). His birthday is observed as a national holiday in Pakistan.
