While attempting to remain largely above the fray, the former leaders cannot help but to place the blame for the dramatic, recent decline in civil-military relations on anyone but themselves and their own failures in the Global War on Terror and their overt ideological shift to the left.

This esteemed and bipartisan group of leaders believes that this nation is undergoing a crisis in civil-military relations and very clearly points the finger at former President Donald Trump for this:

Many of the factors that shape civil-military relations have undergone extreme strain in recent years. Geopolitically, the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ramping up of great power conflict mean the U.S. military must simultaneously come to terms with wars that ended without all the goals satisfactorily accomplished while preparing for more daunting competition with near-peer rivals.