In a democracy, military authority must defer to the democratic leadership. The military must obey lawful orders. However, we have a recurrent problem that politicians keep embarking on ill-advised adventures even when, privately the military top brass have advised against this. We must enable senior military officers to resign, with their pensions intact, and speak their mind if they sincerely and strongly believe that the government is following a course of action which is militarily foolish and against the interests of the nation. We need to improve the quality, scrutiny and accountability of political decision-making on military matters.