Peter Feaver:

Well, first thing, let's be clear. If the president had announced that what actually happened was what was going to happen from the beginning, there wouldn't have been much of a fuss. But, of course, it also wouldn't have been all that exciting either.

It was overhyped by the White House, as well as foot-dragging from the Pentagon. I think there's probably some blame on both sides.

But the danger here — and then the third party that's to blame is partisan critics of the president, who seized this opportunity. And they were releasing T-shirts of the USS McCain, trolling the president, because of his stormy relationship with Senator McCain, former senator.

And what this does is, it's fighting over the carcass of the U.S. military, which is supposed to be independent, nonpolitical, servant of the entire state, and not just of a political party.

When you bring politicization in, you're raising doubts about the reliability, that the military will obey lawful orders when it's given, that they will not inject their own partisan political preferences into the strategy-making, strategy execution business. And we depend on the military being nonpartisan like that.

But when you bring them into partisan food fights, as has happened over the last several weeks, you're chipping away at that nonpartisan status. And that's just not good for anyone. No — neither Republican or Democrat wins if the military takes on a partisan cast.