The Line Must Hold
Every society must make clear what it expects of its armed servants.
When I was a cadet in the Army ROTC during summer training at Fort Bragg, I purchased at the post exchange a garish T-shirt that said Kill a Commie for Mommie. It had all kinds of appalling pictures on it. I did not have the courage, however, to wear it in Harvard Square (or anywhere else, for that matter), and it soon vanished.
This uncomfortable memory came to mind as I reflected on President Donald Trump’s latest tussle with the Department of Defense, over the pardon of two Army officers convicted of war crimes and his intervention on behalf of a Navy SEAL acquitted of a crime but nonetheless disgraced for posing with
