The Partisan Exploitation of Servicemen

AMERICAblog reports on the reissuance of DoD standards on the political conduct of servicemembers. Apparently a high profile Republican House member trod dangerously close to, if not over the line recently, but by digging through the links you can discover that both major parties, Democrat and Republican, are reported to have formally integrated the use of servicemembers as political props into their strategies.

Certainly military members need to know the rules of what we can and cannot do with respect to partisan political activities. The bigger question in my mind is, however, who's got our backs? Why should I as a member have to give the "thanks for the invitation, but no thanks?" Shouldn't someone at the civilian levels of control in the DoD be sending the message to the parties and pols to cease and desist?

Maybe Secretary Rumsfeld's memo is part of that process, but I've seen few other signs of a plan in action.