Here’s the first public commentary I’m aware of in a military-themed publication regarding the changes wrought by Defense Secretary Gates.

Army Brass Losing Influence

TAMPA, Florida - At a time when the U.S. Army's soldiers are doing most of the fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, the service's influence in key decision-making positions is waning.

Of the U.S. military's nine combat commands, only two are run by Army generals, and that number will be cut in half when Bryan Brown retires next month as the senior officer at U.S. Special Operations Command.

Inside the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is relying on officers from the maritime services to be his top advisers. He picked the current chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Mullen, to replace Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Marine Gen. James Cartwright will be Mullen's deputy.

The lack of Army four-stars in top jobs is seen partly as an extension of an attitude brought to the Pentagon six years ago by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. It's also a sign, however, of the successful culmination of a two decade effort to promote the concept of "jointness" within the military. The premise is that properly schooled officers should be able to lead troops regardless of service affiliation.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College who holds a Ph.D. in history from Duke University, said he could find no prior period when the Army was so engaged overseas and so underrepresented at top levels.

"It's absolutely extraordinary," he said. "I just can't believe the numbers. It's cultural, it's political, and it's deeply ingrained. I've never seen it to the degree it exists today."

Pish and tosh. This is war for foreign oil and not sandlot baseball. You don’t get to take your glove and baseball and go home in a snit if you can’t be captain of the team.

Let’s face it: The Navy uses more oil than the Army, and so they get the juicy jobs. Surely any graduate of Army Vo-Tech understands that?

You know, all you Army Generals, maybe if you had remembered the solemn sworn oaths you took at commissioning you wouldn’t be whining now. If you had spent more time on your hind legs telling Messers Bu$h, Cheney and Rumsfeld, “Not only no, but fuck no! What part of fucking no way don’t you civilians understand?” you wouldn’t be at the back of the mess line right now collecting the SOS instead of the nice juicy steaks and string beans almondine.

One of your brothers had the testes to speak the truth to Mr Rumsfeld and instead of supporting him you ran off into corners, whistling loudly as you carefully inspected the wallpaper while the Defense Secretary folded him up into a little package and mailed him home. You remember GEN Eric Shinseki? Short fellow, kind of serious, won four Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts in Nam?

Too bad about losing the key jobs, Generals. You should have met my mother. She used to say, “If you keep hitting flat notes on the piano, they’ll stop asking you to play at parties.” Then she would slap the flat side of my head.