In a series of striking critiques this week, senior retired military officers spoke out forcefully and unequivocally against the president.

In a series of striking critiques this week, senior retired military officers including former Secretary of Defense and retired Gen.

For senior retired military officers to level such criticism against a serving president is unprecedented and signals a true constitutional crisis over American civil-military relations.

This view was quickly endorsed by other senior retired military officers, including two former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Adm.

As a political appointee, Esper’s future is problematic, and he may soon join the long list of senior officials who have resigned or been fired by the president.

But this sad series of events has presented the nation’s uniformed military leadership with a challenge to civil-military relations.

Trump wittingly or not seems bent on forcing these senior military officers to choose between these potentially conflicting loyalties, and some fear such a dilemma could occur soon.

The service chiefs (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines) know the American people’s opinion of their military could be irrevocably damaged by future confrontations between peaceful demonstrators and soldiers.

Its professional responsibility is to provide unbridled advice to civilian leadership — while accepting that final decisions rest with those elected by the American people.

Among the facts “submitted to a candid world,” they argued the king had “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power,” maintained “Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures” and quartered “large bodies of armed troops among us.” In other words, they were determined to make sure military and political leaders worked together for the common good — and to make sure no single leader could unilaterally use the military for his or her own political purpose.

At times, he has seemed to view the military as just another political force to be used for partisan advantage.

As a result, some in the military — as well as retired officers serving in senior administration positions — have, over the past three years, exercised what could be called “respectful disobedience” to appear supportive of the president while keeping his worst excesses at bay.

Against this backdrop, the erosion of democratic norms by the president threatens an essential covenant between the American people and their military.

He cautioned that the president’s threats to use military force against protestors "may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.".

At this critical moment in our history, it is imperative that the current senior leadership of the American military speak truth to power