Tim Bakken, the longest-serving law professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, has been a thorn in the side of the government for many years. An author, a scholar, a professor of constitutional law and a gadfly, he has argued — vociferously — that the military has isolated itself from the civilian guardrails that are supposed oversee its behavior — and the problematic wars America always seems to get into.

“The military’s loyalty to itself and determined separation from society have produced an authoritarian institution that is contributing to the erosion of American democracy,” he wrote.

In his 2020 book, “The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military,” Bakken acknowledges that the military “has been and remains one of the most critical institutions in America” but says it has become “an island, opaque and secretive,” and “has completely severed its culture, mores, and legal systems from the basic tenets of civilian society and constitutional government.”

For a man teaching cadets who will eventually fight America’s constant wars, this is tough stuff — and certainly worth debating. If the top brass would want to shut up someone, however, it would be Bakken.

Their chance arose on Jan. 27, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order, a proclamation that is akin to a law, although actual laws have been scarce. This directive went to the nation’s five military academies, including West Point, the most prestigious, overlooking the Hudson River 60 miles north of New York City, from which Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur graduated.

The government, it ordered, “shall carefully review the leadership, curriculum, and........

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