WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- U.S. military personnel must refrain from politics this election year, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen writes in a military journal.
"The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times," Mullen says, in what the International Herald Tribune Sunday called an unusual open letter to the troops. "It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no matter which party holds sway."
The essay in the official military journal Joint Force Quarterly comes during an election year in which war in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a central issue.
Members of the Joint Chiefs have expressed concern about the influence of retired military officers who advise political campaigns, including some who have urged a change in U.S. military policy, the Tribune said. Retired officers are permitted to be politically active.
"As the nation prepares to elect a new president," Mullen wrote, "we would all do well to remember the promises we made: to obey civilian authority, to support and defend the Constitution, and to do our duty at all times."
Mullen said he wrote the essay after troops raised political questions during his visits to U.S. military personnel around the world.
