OUT ON A LIMB: Maybe public confidence in the military would go up if its leaders shut up. In the Arizona Republic, Jon Gabriel writes:

Pentagon ‘smites’ Tucker Carlson? Really?

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It is not the military’s job to “smite” American civilians, especially those exercising freedom of the press. If I had stayed in long enough to make admiral, all civilians would still outrank me. Even cable news hosts.

Just imagine the Pentagon attacking CNN’s Chris Cuomo in March 2019. The Columbia School of Journalism would offer a seminar titled “The Day Trump Killed Democracy” for the next decade.

The military holds high esteem because it’s stayed above the grubby world of partisan politics and click-bait headlines. If it wanders into that muck, taxpayers will soon lose that hard-won respect. Then they’ll wonder what they’re getting from the Pentagon’s nearly trillion-dollar budget.

That’s one question the military doesn’t want asked.

The coffers are broke, the military is woke. Our enemies think it’s a joke. What could go wrong?