The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Transportation Institute's Rebuttal Doesn't Rescue Its Original Claim
English Summary
The article critiques the Transportation Institute's (TI) argument that foreign-flagged ships operating under Jones Act waivers are inherently unsafe compared to domestic vessels. While TI attempted to dismiss comparisons by arguing that US Coast Guard inspections (COI) and international Port State Control (PSC) systems are incomparable, the author demonstrated that even removing administrative findings does not change the core finding: the domestic Jones Act tanker deficiency rate remains significantly higher than the waiver fleet's rate. The analysis concludes that TI's rebuttal fails to substantiate its original claim because it cannot provide a comparable baseline for the domestic fleet and lacks evidence of unusual safety risks in foreign-flagged vessels.
中文摘要
本文批判了交通協會（Transportation Institute, TI）的論點，即在《瓊斯法案》（Jones Act）豁免下營運的外國船旗船舶與國內船舶相比具有固有不安全性。儘管TI試圖以主張美國海岸警衛隊檢查（COI）和國際港口國檢驗（PSC）系統不可比較來駁斥此類比較，但作者證明，即使排除行政裁定，核心發現並未改變：國內《瓊斯法案》油輪的缺陷率仍顯著高於豁免船隊的缺陷率。分析結論指出，TI的反駁未能支持其原始主張，原因在於它無法提供一個可比較的國內船隊基準線，且缺乏外國船旗船舶存在異常安全風險的證據。
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