Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

The current Taiwan Straits crisis is a perfect storm of dangerous causes and enablers.  Democratic Progressive Party secessionist rhetoric is one. The US President's interpretation of the Taiwan Relations Act as a military commitment is another.  But the role of a US shadow government that has returned the US to an outlawed spoils system is also worthy of discussion. 

One of our Founding Fathers wrote: "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must… oblige it to control itself."

The balance of power between three branches of government compensates for the flaws of human nature in government.  Each branch serves as a watcher, to moderate excesses in the other branches obliging each to avoid tyranny.  

But the intent was corrupted when federal civil servants were hired based on loyalty to the party of the President in power in what was called the spoils system. After President James A. Garfield was assassinated by a supporter who did not get a coveted position, the system was outlawed.  In 1883 Congress replaced it with a federal civil service based on qualification rather than political loyalty.   

Today, the 2.1 million civil servants in the federal government are sworn to uphold the Constitution, and are obligated to report waste, fraud, abuse, danger and corruption as a condition of employment.  But over 150 years corruption has crept back into government. In reporting wrongdoing apolitical civil servants commit career suicide if their reports impact the political class.  

To this end the political class elites have purchased protection from a 36-person bureaucratic star chamber called the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).  It is an alternative government construct within the Executive Branch composed of lifetime-appointed inspectors general (IG) from all agencies. While they are members of the civil service, CIGIE oligarchy members are political class members not accountable to the President or Congress.

The CIGIE and its subcommittees respond to the de facto leadership of the Justice Department IG.  If concerns are raised regarding agencies, Congress, decisions of unpopular Presidents, or nominees the CIGIE can initiate sham, steer or close investigations for any reasons, with no outside review. A protected network of loyal subordinates cycle through the staffs of IGs, members of Congress, Office of Special Counsel, Supreme and Federal Courts, specialized non-profits, and elite law firms. The CIGIE erodes the branch separation and independence intended by America's Founding Fathers.

The CIGIE sells protection to political appointees heading agencies of the party in power. In return, protected agency heads shield IGs and thereby the CIGIE and its preferred others from outside scrutiny. Through unchallenged manipulation of investigatory authorities, the CIGIE picks winners and losers in the civil service, among nominees, sitting Presidents, and even members of Congress. For those enjoying CIGIE favor, political agendas can be pursued with vigor. Alternatively, the CIGIE can guarantee investigation of elected officials or appointees whose outlooks threaten CIGIE members or political class interests.

For example, a President could be polling badly. A Secretary of Defense knows that longevity depends on the President and party members in Congress surviving election, and that a wartime President polls well. The US secretary of defense could recommend war as the preferred option to respond to a certain country even when agency bureaucrats know that the US would lose.

The national security team could overlook the consequences of inevitable defeat as a problem for a future administration. Civil servants attempting to disclose such wrongdoing would be destroyed and fired. The CIGIE would rubber stamp reprisals ensuring that political class members are never held accountable for knowingly disastrous recommendations, such as a tragic war with China.

This was the pattern followed in Afghanistan. Knowing the war was unwinnable, shielded leaders deferred accountability, claiming progress, washing their hands and rising to new positions elsewhere, and then comfortably retiring in the private sector.  

It is reported the CIGIE steered a review of the Afghanistan exit to the State Department IG. If the past is prologue, no senior officials will be held accountable for that debacle, as it would discredit elite members of the political class. As evidence, recently the President and his national security team were absolved of any wrongdoing by an IG in the deaths of many innocents in a botched Kabul drone strike.

The CIGIE and its untouchable IGs have returned the civil services to a corrupt spoils system, a red flag for the American public as tensions with China build, since a major war will require a draft, and it will be America's youth that pay the price.

The author is a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who now serves as a US civil servant in the Pentagon. Opinions are of the author and do not represent the US government. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn