Civilians Reign Over U.S. Military by Tradition and Design

Scholars who study the armed forces say [that the supportive comments made this past week by General Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Secretaqry Rumsfeld] were a public restatement of a bedrock principle of American governance: civilian control of the military.

"This is what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is expected to do by tradition and law," said Dennis E. Showalter, a military historian at Colorado College who has taught at the Air Force Academy and West Point. Short of submitting his own resignation, General Pace had little choice but to offer a public show of support, Mr. Showalter said.

"If he had not spoken out, he would have been making a very strong statement," he said.