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Everyone applauds generals for standing up to the errors of the nation's civilian leaders... so long as one shares the generals' views. Since there is no risk of a military dictatorship developing in the U.S., we are more inclined to side with the generals in instances like this. Remember, however, that while the military should be given the authority to conduct tactical campaigns as they see fit, the political leadership governing those tactical campaigns absolutely must remain independent of the military.
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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
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