Electoral battles

Top military officer to troops: Don't politicize the military

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reminded troops in an article this month not to politicize the military during the 2016 presidential elections. 

"Every member of the Joint Force has the right to exercise his or her civic duty, including learning and discussing — even debating — the policy issues driving the election cycle and voting for his or her candidate of choice," Dunford wrote in the July issue of Joint Force Quarterly, a military academic journal. 

"What we must collectively guard against is allowing our institution to become politicized, or even perceived as being politicized, by how we conduct ourselves during engagements with the media, the public, or in open or social forums," he wrote. 

He also reminded troops to conduct themselves in a way that the next administration has confidence it would be served by an apolitical military.