HMM: ‘They Are Getting Ready for Trump’s Second Term’: Former Pentagon Brass Encourage Military to Disobey Orders. “The only thing that’s missing from the bulleted manifesto-y letter about the military’s ‘best practices’ is an explanation for why it was written. Is it more (very delayed) fallout from January 6? A response to President Joe Biden’s use of Marine guards as staging for his angry and divisive speech in Philadelphia in which he declared war on Republicans? A warning of things yet to come?”
The Biden Administration, like the Obama Administration before it, went out of the way to politicize the military. Then there was the Afghanistan debacle, which — like all huge, humiliating military defeats — inevitably strained relationships with civilian masters, and for that matter the public. Leaders of previous generations worried about these things; leaders of the current generation are happy to spend all kinds of capital with no thought for the long-term consequences.
Related: Of Coups and the Constitution.
Plus:
The letter is conveniently revisionist in its glossing over of recent military history while attempting to frame the former officials’ legacies in a positive light. Claiming the disaster that was the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan merely “ended without all the goals satisfactorily accomplished” is a rather appalling way to characterize what was a complete failure on multiple levels — one that further undermined Americans’ trust in military leaders.
What’s more, the signatories were at the helm of the U.S. military for the better part of the last two decades — if there are issues with the civil-military relationship, they had a hand in that. They were also on watch as the armed forces barreled toward recruitment, retention, and fitness level failures through multiple administrations.
Then there’s the matter of the signers’ decision to chime in on politics, invoke the events of January 6, and talk about presidential elections.
Well, that’s part of the problem, of course. The demonstrably incompetent and politicized brass is pretty much all in with the Gentry/ruling class with whom they increasingly share a tribal identity as the result of the military’s emphasis on graduate education for senior officers. The rest of the military? Unclear.
But if Trump is re-elected — or if any other Republican is elected — firing the worthless senior military leadership should be a top priority, and not just because they’ve politicized themselves.