“The military has all of a sudden been placed in a highly politicized environment regarding immigration,” retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said of the surge of troops to the border…

In a tweet Thursday, retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the border operation a “wasteful deployment of over-stretched Soldiers and Marines.”

Dempsey’s tweet echoed the opinion of several other senior military officers who weighed in on social media or in interviews.

“I see no threat requiring this kind of deployment,” retired Gen. Colin Powell, also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told The Washington Post.