President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military.
I’ve been out a long time and was of low rank in any case. However, I’m skeptical that safeguards don’t exist that will make that less effective than it sounds. For one thing, the duty to disobey unlawful orders goes all the way to the lowest E1. But I am doubtful that Trump can successfully reach a point where all or even enough of the top brass are willing to drink his flavor aid to not have to worry about them.
History has shown that these are very seldom adhered to, and that adhering to them is a career-limiting—and even freedom-limiting—move. The whole War on Terror torture regime is just one example in the post-WWII era.
The orders aren’t unlawful though. Unlawful per who?
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/what-is-a-military-duty-to-disobey/
They’re unlawful until the SCROTUS says they aren’t.
How often does this happen?
Basically never. Most aren’t getting to their day in court for disobeying orders. They’ll give you a less than honorable discharge quick fast and in a hurry. Back when I was in Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still a thing, and was used to keep people quiet. I was threatened with it when reporting a sexual assault that leadership wanted to ignore. When I kept going up the chain of command I was eventually told if I didn’t shut up Id I’d be given a less than honorable discharge under violating Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Dunno, but an awful lot has been written about it. We don’t elect dictators very often, so I’d say we’re in uncharted waters here.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=soliders+who+have+disobeyed+unlawful+orders&ia=web
Lore accurate Jonestown reference? NICE
😁
I literally had kool aid typed because that’s what everyone is used to hearing. Then I thought of the number of times I’ve said “Well ackshually” to others about that, so decided to heed my own pedantry.
I like how the expression is starting to morph into “He drank the Well Actually It Was Flavor-Aid.”
And since the only good reason to make the error would be to invite another pedant into the conversation, I’m finding this whole little sidethread very satisfactory.