Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes

Washington, though a military officer at the time, was very concerned with protecting the rights of citizens from abuse by the military for he had seen much of the abuse. The third amendment for example was later written to protect people from the military. The Constitution also requires that Congress make such rules for the military. Note that Washington, our first senior military officer at the time, wanted Congress to make detailed rules for the conduct of soldiers. In the 20th and 21st century, as the imperial presidency developed, there was a political view that only the military officers and the Commander in Chief should make the rules and regulations for the soldiers. However, there was no question but that the Founding Fathers saw this as a legislative branch function. Congress and Presidents have contested for this power every since.

Restorer of Civilian Democracy to Brazil. His reticence to comment publicly on anything brought him the appellation, “Minister of Silence.”

Miles, a hero of the Indian Campaigns (although he led the atrocities at the massacre at Wounded Knee) and then the leading military figure in America was an opponent of the policies of the new young President and had political aspirations of his own for the Presidency. Miles’ opinions were printed in the press. He maintained that he was not speaking as the Commanding General of the Army but personally as a citizen. The President surprised almost all by publicly scolding and reprimanding Miles when he next came to the White House. Five days later Roosevelt made the reprimand official, effectively ending Miles career. The issue of when senior military officers can criticize the administration has been debated ever since. Roosevelt was also a war hero himself, and although the military was shocked by such “savage” treatment of a senior officer, the President had public opinion on his side. Every decade or so there is a military official who does not care for the administration’s policies and expresses himself publicly. President Truman’s firing to General Douglas Macarthur was the most dramatic case, but Truman was well aware of the Miles and TR precedent.

His statement was on the issuance of Executive Order 9981 which outlawed military segregation and granted equal treatment and opportunity to all service members regardless of their race:

1st Earl of Oxford

Even in a relatively frontier state like Indiana at the time, there was little enthusiasm for a militia. See {613320}.

There was no conscription during the War of 1812 and the State militias were notoriously unreliable.

This quotation is very controversial among historians. Beverly was in a sense the first American historian, although he had no formal training. His extolling the military and sharpshooting virtues of his fellows may or may not have been an exaggeration both as to their skill with firearms and their ability as soldiers. There is much evidence that only a minority of the people of Virginia possessed firearms at the time yet Beverly’s image is the one that has come down to us in the romanticized view of early America. Even fellow Virginian, George Washington {613056} complained that his Virginia civilians made poor soldiers compared with “regulars” who had been trained to shoot, and when Virginia militia reported for duty less than one quarter had firearms which were very expensive and not very accurate at the time.

While most modern armies treat officers and enlisted men who desert equally or even favor the officers, the Visigoths made desertion by an officer the severest of crimes. A centurion was the officer in charge of 100 men. There were 10 decurians (leaders of 10) under him, They were the modern equivalent of the Sergeants—non-commissioned officers. Their penalty for desertion was only the paying of a heavy fine. It was the officers who had to set the example. This set of laws is the most formalized and sophisticated compendium of laws of the so-called “barbaric peoples” of Europe. The compilation was in many ways a documentation of the traditional laws of the Visigoths that had evolved over hundreds of years.