Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley assured two House Democrats Friday that he saw no role for the military in monitoring polling places or taking part in other aspects of the electoral process.
An “apolitical” military. It seems like too many years ago that such an assurance wasn’t necessary.
It doesn’t make me feel all that great that they felt the need to say this publicly.
“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. Military,” he said, later adding that he will comply with all “lawful orders” but not with an “unlawful order.”… erm, who gets to decide the difference?
This…just gives me the chills…Like we are becoming a kind of United States of Nicaragua…
Well, I’m reassured. Maybe they should provide further reassurance that this will continue to be policy even if the Reichstag is set aflame by undesirables.
Gen. Milley saying they remain apolitical sounds reassuring but for how long?
Gen. Milley has been part of Trump’s parade of “his generals” in the Oval Office - See #2
A US Military tribunal? But that just leads to the next rabbit hole. The real answer is that our Senate should have done their job in January.
“I do not see the U.S. Military as part of this process; this is the responsibility of Congress, the Supreme Court and components of the Executive Branch,” Milley said in the written response, which was first reported by the AP
.bookmarking
This sentence gives me the willies.
"“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. Military,” he said, later adding that he will comply with all “lawful orders” but not with an “unlawful order.”
Aside from being an evasion to the question that was asked, what the heck is an unlawful order when it comes from the Commander and Chief?
His deferral to the Supreme Court also does not provide comfort. To me all this shows is how fragile is American democracy in the age of Moscow Mitch, Chief Injustice Roberts and Donald Trump.
Like Bush with his own incompetence causing 911 using it to lie America into a disastrous war, I fear Republicans controlling the levers of power will use the Trumpence-demic to defy the law and constitution to hold power over the will of the people.
This is what we’ve come to. Our own military assuring us they’ll stay the fuck out of our elections. Somoza would be proud.
Milley is filly with silly willy-nilly.
Trump has his military of 17 years old.
Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt.
Their feeling the need to say this publicly also makes me doubt its truth all the more.
Well I don’t know if I doubt the truth exactly. I just don’t feel good about their feeling the need to say it at all.
If I were Biden, and if I were to win, I would demand the resignation of General David H. Berger, the Commandant of the Marine Corps who allowed his troops to be used as props in the naturalization process for the RNC to play to the American people.
That’s an issue I wish would have been brought up with Milley.
Well, members proposed these questions to him and he answered them. It’s not like he just issued a statement without being prompted.
Honestly, military intervention into the election just isn’t one of my concerns. The military isn’t going to get involved because I don’t believe they’ll have any interest in doing so, nor do I believe they’ll have the ability to do so even if they wanted to. More than that, I just don’t believe that the vast majority of the shit they’ve watched over the last several years is acceptable to most of the kinds of people who devote their lives to protecting this country. That’s not to say there aren’t some who’d happily go all in on a military coup, Flynn certainly seemed the type, but I don’t think he’s indicative of the rest of the military. I imagine career military folks view silver spooned dumbasses like Trump as the shitstains they are.
We have reached our Nuremberg moment. Do we throw the Nazi salute or do we join the Resistance?
Russians are paying the Afghans to kill our people. Trump said nothing. They’re confronting us on the ground in Syria. Trump does nothing. I’m pretty sure everyone in the military is taking note of that. They may have a variety of political perspectives, they reflect society to some extent (the officers reflect its more educated side), but a threat to one is a threat to all. They’ll stay out of it. They won’t break with centuries of tradition for Trump.
