In this TIME essay, Elliot Ackerman examines how the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan exposed a widening divide between the military, political leadership, and the American public.

A Crisis of Accountability

Ackerman begins with Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller’s viral demand for accountability after the suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans. He argues that Scheller’s public break with military norms was not simply a rant, but an act of professional self-destruction rooted in anger, betrayal, and disillusionment.

The Civil-Military Divide

The essay explores how two decades of war fought by an all-volunteer force and financed through deficit spending have insulated military service from broader American life. Ackerman warns that this professional soldiering class increasingly exists apart from the society it serves, creating dangerous conditions when service members feel abandoned or misunderstood.

A Fault Line in American Democracy

Drawing on examples from Rome, Napoleonic France, and recent U.S. politics, Ackerman argues that a large standing military combined with dysfunctional domestic institutions can threaten democratic stability. The politicization of military leaders and the erosion of the military’s traditional code of political restraint deepen that risk.

Read the Original Essay

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