Under normal circumstances, it would be somewhat alarming for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to issue a statement affirming that Joe Biden will be their next commander in chief because he has won the 2020 presidential election.
Under normal circumstances, the Joint Chiefs, comprising the top officers of the branches of the U.S. armed forces, would go to some lengths to avoid taking a position on such a matter. And it would be best if we never had to ask the Joints Chiefs to play such a role, which some might say amounts to interfering in domestic politics and seeking to choose their own commander in chief.
But these are not normal circumstances. Under the current circumstances, I very much welcome their statement.
I have previously mentioned on a couple of occasions that, although Joe Biden won the election and Donald Trump lost it, I will not completely unclench my muscles and relax my nerves until Biden has been inaugurated and Trump has left the White House and everyone relevant has acknowledged that Biden is president and Trump is not.
I renew that pledge, about not unclenching prematurely, even after Trump made a recent half-assed acknowledgement of the election, although that didn’t keep him from inciting a deadly riot to keep the transfer of power from proceeding.
But it is significantly reassuring that the Joint Chiefs have broken with tradition and made the statement they have. Members of the military, even the top generals and admirals, work for the president and are expected to follow presidential orders. The joint chiefs did not specify what they might do in the days remaining if Trump were to try to use the military to cling to power. And that, of course, is why I welcome their statement.
The full statement by the Joint Chiefs can be accessed here.
Yes, it is oddly comforting, although it is (studiously) not actually saying anything.
Unfortunately, the entire focus of “operations” in the US military is geared to ensuring that the orders of the president (as “commander-in-chief”) are quickly followed, and there are precious few safeguards from orders from a deranged chief executive. An order must be somehow unlawful to be inoperable, and the order(s) of a lunatic are not per se unlawful. Indeed, the system is set up to ensure that an order from (for example) the deranged Trumpolini to launch a strike on Iran on the night of Jan 19, 2021 is OBEYED. We see this as a great positive strength of our military.
This “commander in chief” issue, of course, was the principal problem with the Repubs running a totally unqualified preening ignoramus with obvious personality disorder(s) for president, as well as having 46% of the electorate think that such a fool was perfectly acceptable to be “commander in chief” of the military forces of the Prussia of the 21st Century. Indeed, 74 million now want him to remain in the position! Also a problem is having a constitution that allowed the wishes of a political minority faction to prevail in a presidential election. The common sense of the majority or plurality of citizens is thus rendered inoperative. Our “orders” are not followed.
Anyway, that a single person should have such utter control of such an instantaneous and destructive military force is a huge problem for both the nation and the planet. Especially when it is almost always used for offensive, not defensive, purposes. And it is quite obvious that the catastrophic failure of the America electorate in the 21st Century makes this problem one that will continue for as long as our entrenched militarism remains the defining characteristic of Modern America.
The memo is welcome, but it’s disturbing to think that the Joint Chiefs thought it necessary.
We agree, and listening to this mornings congressional testimony suggests why these folks had to do it, there are plenty folks, still think and support that he is pure of heart and word and did not say and do what he did say and do. Evidently many of us folks have fake eyes and fake ears and fake comprehension of facts and events.
Like Eric, I am reassured, but – also like Eric – I will not unclench until the treasonous would-be dictator is safely out of Washington and Biden / Harris are equally safely ensconced therein.
Regarding BK Anderson’s comment, with which I’m in agreement, I’ll let my naiveté show and suggest that, with current circumstance and personnel in the West Wing as a rationale, I’d like to see Congress reassert its authority and revise the relevant command-issue legislation so that we return to those halcyon days when it was Congress, not the President, that declared war. My guess is that there are quite a few Congressional staffers smart enough to write legislation that would make perfectly legal exceptions for genuine emergencies in terms of speed of response, but which would simultaneously make The Shrub’s (George W. Bush) taking us into Middle Eastern war (“Mission Accomplished,” anyone?) based on – if you’re generous – faulty reading of intelligence (if you’re less generous, the appropriate word is “lies”) pretty much impossible without Congressional assent.
One of the biggest problems right now is the continual reliance on the “authorization to use military force” resolution enacted by Congress after 9/11. This (now 19-year old) resolution is thrown out as the basis for just about every operation the president unilaterally elects to undertake, such as Trump’s recent assassination of Iran’s head of military operations, bringing us into a state of war with Iran. That resolution should be repealed.
And yes, Congress should have long ago reasserted its right to declare war, as well as passing a resolution defining what “war” is in the 21st Century. The problem is that no Congress will refuse to fund the unconstitutional operations undertaken by a brazen commander-in-chief, because the Congress fears the (mostly rightwing) cry of “didn’t support the troops!” Ending the funding actually is “supporting the troops”, by forcing the lawbreaking “commander in chief” to withdraw them from the president’s adventure. But that viewpoint appears lost on most Americans.
Of course, in the days of monarchy, refusal to fund the King’s Wars was the only way Parliaments and nobles had to force the monarch to end them. And absolutist militarist power Prussia had no Parliament. Which is basically where we are now!
Our military, like our police and perhaps national guard, too, are infiltrated with white supremacists, fascist sympathizers and conspiracy-minded members.
Navy Seals, Army Rangers and special ops have members whose ideological world view is anathema to public service.
Somehow, these individuals need to be identified and removed, or their units dis-banded, until the reactionary and potentially seditious individuals build units around their fever dreams.
In Germany, military leaders have disbanded some of these units because it was the only way to rid them of these individuals.
T**** sowed the idea that our military is connected to payments for security, which he demanded from NATO and even the Saudis. Eric Prinz gave an absolutely smug and entitled response to his questioning about secret private military plans in the Seychelles, connected with Russia.
We have seen U.S. trained personnel harm people en mass too many times to continue to ignore this problem.
Loyalty must always be to the Constitution and never to these sociopaths who have earned rank while pretending to serve the US.
Racism among Capitol police? More and more evidence of the prejudice that taints law enforcement every day as we see who these folks are.
https://www.propublica.org/article/no-one-took-us-seriously-black-cops-warned-about-racist-capitol-police-officers-for-years?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Thank you, Eric. I welcome this statement so much that I have printed it out so that I can gaze upon it periodically. I’ll be glad if and when this entire sad and horrific episode (starting with the presidential election of 2016) is over. I pray for peace.
God bless President-elect Joe Biden and God bless America.
An interesting aside to all of the events of the last week is the question Trump must be asking himself:
“When’s a good time to pardon me, my family and friends?”
And he can’t do it by tweet which further complicates things.
All of which may make him too distracted to go to war with Iran.
Especially since “I did not start any new wars” is the closest thing he has to any commendable bit of legacy left.
Remembering Trump’s, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about,” I’m not sure this missive by the military is that reassuring. Trump was narcissistic enough and dumb enough to brag about those secret emergency action documents that, supposedly, not even Congress knows what they allow. He’s also desperate enough and evil enough to come up with a way to trigger them. And he still has a party so devoid of any integrity that most will still not stand up to him one week after they hid in fear for their lives. In the building where they took an oath to defend the Constitution!
Still, I guess it’s better than nothing. After all, many a coup in those “shit-hole countries” depend upon having the military on your side. The MAGA slogan really seems like some cruel joke being played on our country by someone punishing us.