Colin Powell was Secretary of State during the Bush administration. He was a general prior to his assuming the highest position in the State Department. He ran into trouble when he equated the idea of loyalty to his commanding officer with advising the president of the United States on foreign policy.
The Secretary of State should have the right to tell the president he or she is making a mistake by going to war, and understand the principles that keep our nation out of war.
It is up to the president to have a plan that is in everyone's best interest, and the next level out is responsible for the application of the plan. The perspective of the generals is to wage war. It is not their responsibility to be diplomats. The five-sided shape of a pentagon is a symbol of revenge. It is a symbol of the power games of war, genocide, massacres, slavery and human rights violations and terrorism.
The president of the United States can be considered the most powerful person on the planet because he or she is the head of the overview nation on the planet. We are a melting pot of cultures and religions. It we can maintain peace within our own nation, world peace is possible, too. It is our Constitutional rights that make our nation strong, not our military. Having a strong military did not bring people from all over the world here. It was that our Constitution guarantees to every American our rights to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
There has been a battle over the plan. One option mankind has is to continue to rely on the existing international structure, which has proven it cannot end or prevent wars. The second is for one individual to outsmart the rest of the planet by playing the games of genocide and slavery, and assume the position of emperor of the planet, and hold it by force. These are two untenable options.
The third option that allows everyone to function on a higher level is the plan for the international government, but there has been a battle over the plan, too. It has been pirated and "sold as the original model to people who are grabbing for power.
If any plan for an international government is pirated and retro-engineered, and offered to the world leaders by someone who is not the architect of the plan, the information is diluted and won't achieve the same effect.
Let's assume the U.S. Constitution is put into every nation on the planet. After one hundred years, there were be 200 variations of legal systems based on the same document. It is the application of the principles.
Technology spins off from the plan for world peace, just like the president and the generals, and just like every project, it must stand on the same principles. The technology team cannot dictate terms to the overview concept, just as the generals cannot dictate terms to the president.
The Exit Strategy for Iraq proposal starts with the professional publishing team coming into the organization. The books were pirated, and offered to the potential members of the team, but together, the pirates and the team members don't have the right to publish pirated books. By doing so, they face the backlash from Universal Law.
The first principle for every project is that it must stand on the principles of Universal Law. This is the only way to avoid the backlashes. The first question when you are trying to come up with a plan that allows you to rise out of the abyss is "Are you willing to stand on the principles of Universal Law?"
By leaving one individual out of your plan, you are going down into the power games, and facing the backlashes.
Presidents have functioned in the interests of their nation, which is fine, except if their plan does not stand on the principles of Universal Law. There is a bridge concept between the levels, that to do what is in your own best interests, you must do what is in everyone's best interest. To rise out of any crisis, you must do what is in everyone's best interests and leave no one out.