The military is of course one aspect of the revolving door of elites that make up the governing class of the US version of polyarchic governance, thinly disguised as an elective democracy.  That Bacevich is able to have taken a scholarly look at the process after being heavily indoctrinated speaks volumes of the degree to which it has possibly gone so far off kilter since the confusion that what it called its "defeat" in Vietnam.  As we who bother with this area of scholarship have been informed, Chalmers Johnson was also a spear carrier for empire who could not ignore what he saw.

The binary opposition of liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican is somewhat irrelevant to this issue as I see it.

"I would pillow myself on the stream, for I'd like to cleanse my ears" - Sun Chu (218-293) Chinese recluse