Is2Day4him: You are right - it is sad that the whole concept of the "loyal opposition" has largely disappeared. Thankfully it generally has not disappeared among military members themselves who still are taught and understand that we offer our professional best opinion, then accept the decision, salute and execute to the best of our ability, but among many of those outside the circle it has definitely disappeared from both sides of the aisle. People seem to have a hard time differentiating between disagreements over the mechanics of executing policies and disgreements over fundamental issues of morality and conscience and generally seem to have a harder and harder time attributing good intentions to those who would follow a different course of action than they themselves are advocating. (You only have to read a number of the postings on our site to realize that.) So if someone chooses a conflicting approach- they are not only challenged on whether or not their proposal is likely to succeed as efficiently as the other approach- their basic loyalty and integrity is challenged too. ("You can't have the best intentions for the country because I have the best intentions for the country and we differ. Therefore you are either a criminal, a thief, a liar or a traitor.")
This is a sad development for the country that's at least 20 years in the making.