by Robert R. Mackey, LTC, USA (Retired)
All--Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I blame Red Dead Redemption and getting the first kid off to college.
Crossposted from HuffPo.
I read Huffington Post daily, and not just because they were nice enough to allow me to blog. I like the spread of news available; it gives a good balance to other news sites.
However, I keep looking for something on a serious internal debate inside the U.S. military, which has yet to be discussed outside of the cloisters of the Pentagon--an ongoing discussion of the ability of the U.S. armed forces to disobey orders they don't like.
We aren't talking Me Lai, or Dachau, or waterboarding. We aren't talking the ethical, moral, and legal requirement of military officers to disobey orders that are unconstitutional, violate U.S. or international law, or are obviously of such crass evil to be disobeyed out of hand.
No, we are talking about an underground current in the U.S. military's officer corps, in which some officers believe that their legally elected civilian leaders can be disobeyed if the individual officer believes the order to be "immoral."
In the newest edition of Joint Forces Quarterly, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Milburn openly states "There are circumstances under which a military officer is not only justified but also obligated to disobey a legal order."
While this might be music to the ears of some, thinking that Milburn is referring to "illegal" wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, that is not what is being batted around the officer corps. No, Milburn's argument is being used by the adherents of the Disobey Lawful Orders School to support resistance to the ending of Don't Ask/Don't Tell.
Well, so what? This is what. The American people, since the 1970's, have depended upon an All Volunteer military. The result has been a very professional, well-trained, and highly respected force that literally can dominate nearly any adversary on the modern battlefield with ease. However, it also created a separate professional military caste, with its own language, belief structure, and living on their isolated compounds separate from many of the issues that plague non-military communities.
Add to this that, due to misguided and short-sighted policies by many of our liberal universities, ROTC was banned from campuses and the armed forces banned from recruiting...ostensibly to show that the military would get no support from said institutions until gays and lesbians could serve openly. The result, however, has been somewhat different. Instead of military officers coming from a wide variety of educational, social, and religious backgrounds, we have a military caste that is predominantly white, Southern, evangelical Protestant and staunchly Republican.
Was this the Department of Agriculture or IBM, would we care? No, most likely not. The problem is that IBM or the DoA does not possess nuclear missiles, tanks, machine guns and warships. We have, basically, allowed for the politicization of the "managers of violence" (as said by Samuel Huntington in his classic work, The Soldier and the State).
The U.S. military today is not the military of the civil rights era--we cannot expect, as Ike, JFK and LBJ did--to send in the 101st Airborne to enforce laws that some officers found distasteful and "immoral," such as the right to an equal education and the end to racist terrorism.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a real problem. We can discuss a senatorial candidate's teenage witchcraft for fun and profit, but things suddenly get very real and very dangerous when we discuss the possibility of armed troops disobeying the orders of the President. When I taught military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, I would tell my students that "the first time a tank shows up on the Capitol steps and begins spraying machine gun bullets, our democracy is over."
It is my opinion, after 24 years of military service, from the rank of buck private to Lieutenant Colonel and after three wars, that the role of the professional officer is to obey the "orders of the President and the officers appointed over me." It has been that way since the Roman legions--you take the King's Shilling, you obey the King's orders. Our entire civil-military structure is based upon that one truth--that the orders of civil authorities are the highest form of authority. If an officer disagrees with a policy or order, they have the right to resign their commission and take the issue public. They do not have the moral, ethical or legal right to disobey but still wear the uniform.
The military is not the same as the other branches of government or the civilian world. They have their own laws, rules and system of control. You can, for example, commit adultery in the civilian world, and your punishment (if any) will happen in divorce court. In the military, you go to jail. The same for a broad swath of transgressions that would see minor in civilian life--from littering to going to an off-limit bar. Why? Because the system requires absolute obedience to authority--and it requires it most of all from its senior officers.
I leave you with this essay, written by Major General Charles Dunlap (USAF, Retired) many years ago. For the good of our Republic, let us hope that the warning of Major General Dunlap, and others, is heeded well before we listen to the words of Lieutenant Colonel Milburn and his ilk.
(pdf) "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012"
by Gary Farber
The ObWi Bay Area Bloggers & Bullsh*t League of Earth = ObBABBLE's first meeting is proto-organized and is hereby announced. Name likely to change, as is everything else. Frequency to start will be monthly, but subject to further detail and change; possibilities of every other weekend subgroups may occur, or may not.
If you're free and interested in a get-together this weekend, in the Berkeley/Oakland area, probably near either the Rockbridge or Ashby BART stations, who prefers Friday nights, who prefers Saturday brunch/afternoon, who prefers Saturday evening, and who prefers Sunday brunch/afternoon?
My own preferences are, very mildly, earlier over later, but any work for me.
One respondent has replied Friday night, Saturday brunch/afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday brunch/afternoon. Various others, others; I'm not going to summarize all here and now.
Feel free to answer the same question about next weekend, generally, and in future.
Other comments and suggestions on the topic and related issues welcome.
If there were a regular gathering every month, any idea how often you might be interested?
(Obviously, that wil depend on how much fun or interest you find when you show up.)
If there were something every two weeks, would you ever show up?
There's no need to make any plans to lock in stone, and such are always inadvisable and don't work for long, in any case. I'm asking for feedback for future reference.
Location is currently being determined. Suggestions still welcome, but my own preference is as short a distance from the intersection of College Avenue and Alcatraz Avenues as possible; failing that, as close to either Rockbridge or Ashby BART station's as possible.
Failing that, we'll see.
Final announcement to be made by Tuesday evening, if not sooner; Wednesday 5 p.m. Pacific time, at the latest, if necessary.
One suggestion has been Lanesplitter Pizza Pub, 3645 San Pablo Avenue, Emeryville, CA. They've not yet been communicated with to find out what they think of the idea, so far as I know.
Does anyone have any feedback on this place as regard their preferences, or other suggestions either closer to College and Alcatraz, or preferences for someplace better, in your view, at an equal or greater distance?
Discuss below, rather than the most recent open thread, or prior.
I'm appointing myself coordinator. Jacob Davies and RAL are currently co-organizers. Check with me for further details.