The dope – the real silly – is an officer (7)
I believe the answer is:
general
'an officer' is the definition.
(general is a kind of officer)
'the dope the real silly' is the wordplay.
'the dope' becomes 'gen' (I've seen this in other clues).
'silly' indicates an anagram.
'real' with letters rearranged gives 'eral'.
'gen'+'eral'='GENERAL'
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for general that I've seen before include "Enlarge for senior army officer" , "Military commander" , "Catholic" , "Popular" , "Applying to all or most of a group" .)