The Pentagon freezing out scholars it doesn't like is such a bad tell. A confident military and a confident country can handle historians, critics, and policy nerds asking annoying questions. If you start treating outside expertise like contamination, you're not protecting readiness, you're protecting a party line. And yeah, some academics are smug and some are wrong. That's not the point. The point is the armed forces work for a democracy, not a closed belief system. Once loyalty tests creep into who gets invited to speak or advise, the institution gets dumber fast. If leaders think ideas are dangerous, that's weakness, not strength.