Dumb, Different, or Dangerous

A veteran shares his opinion on current events for Veterans Day

When my kids were teenagers and headed out on some (mis)adventure, I told them, “Don’t do anything dumb, different, or dangerous.” It was the quickest way to cover a lot of bases. So, using those adjectives, I’m going to categorize some current events in military news. These categories are listed in order of least to most troubling. As always, I only speak for myself. Veterans are not a monolith.

Dumb

I saw a social media post that said it’s like 12-year-olds have taken over our government. Here are three dumb examples.

Changing Department of Defense to Department of War is dumb. Congress changed it to Department of Defense in 1949. It requires an act of Congress to change it again, but these people just view our Constitution as a rough guideline. “War” sounds cool to a 12-year-old. An adult realizes that we take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There are many ways to defend the country before the last option of war.

The Secretary of War convening all his major military leaders in a single room for a meeting is dumb. Some people have highlighted that it’s dangerous to put the Defense Secretary (yeah, I said it), the President, and 800 senior officers in a single room. They’re vulnerable to a decapitation attack. Sure, maybe.

If your boss wants a meeting you go to the meeting. But this was just dumb. It wasted the time of all those military leaders. They had to travel from around the globe on short notice. They left behind the work of national defense so they could watch people preen on stage. These are busy people. The vulnerability didn’t come from being in a room together. The vulnerability came from removing them from their real missions for a week so they could sit in a room for an hour.

The Defense Secretary telling that room that they need to do more push-ups is just dumb. These are some of the most experienced and intelligent military professionals on earth. Bench pressing a Buick has nothing to do with national defense. Especially when you are a general or an admiral. Those people are in those roles to think strategically and to use innovation and their experience to help defend our nation. Not to do sit-ups. This is a former major’s idea of what makes a fighting force effective.

And as a small aside, a lot was made about the stone-faced appearance of those generals and admirals. And a lot was made about the fact that they didn’t applaud Hegseth when he was done talking. Well, I’d be stone-faced if you subjected me to such a colossal waste of my time. And as far as applause, even if they were inclined to cheer, they immediately called the room to attention at the end of the speech. So, of course there was no cheering or applause. They were standing at attention. Way too much has been made of the lack of applause. This is a small example of why a growing divide between civilians and the military is bad for society. The public didn’t understand why there was no clapping.

Different

One thing that’s different about this administration is its elimination of differences. Hegseth has repeatedly said that that diversity is not our strength. My shortest retort to that is to bring up the Navajo Codetalkers. Or Female Engagement Teams in the Global War on Terror. Or Alan Turing, a gay man, breaking the German ENIGMA machine code. Diversity IS our strength. E Pluribus Unum used to be our national motto.

Instead our “Secretary of War” deletes the list of people of color and women at Arlington. Gets rid of DACOWITS. Gets rid of trans service members. Fires Black CJCS and women admirals, without cause. Even the elimination of shaving waivers will disproportionately affect black servicemen. This is a purge by a man that sports two different white supremacist tattoos on his body. If you can’t acknowledge what Hegseth is doing with your own two eyes, I don’t know what to tell you.

Here’s the second thing that’s different. (If breaking the law is different.) But it’s a budgetary law, so people will yawn. But it’s arguably the most lawless and un-Constitutional thing this administration as done. During this government shutdown, the troops wouldn’t get paid. But the Republican executive took money from the Research Development Test and Evaluation budget and repurposed it for military pay. This is a violation of the Antideficiency Act AKA a “law.” Then, we heard that Timothy Mellon, one of the President’s oligarch buds, donated $130 million to pay the troops. This is also a violation of the the Antideficiency Act. They break the law with impunity.

But who cares about boring budget laws. SNORE, amirite?

Someday, Congress will want their Constitutional fiscal role back instead of licking the executive’s boots and, uh oh, it’ll be gone. If it isn’t already gone. This is the longest government shutdown in history. The previous record also happened under this guy. There’s a non-zero chance that Congress never reconvenes. That would show how impotent they’ve become in our Constitutional system of three branches with checks and balances.

Dangerous

These last three things disgust me. We should never normalize these things. But that’s what these Republicans are trying to do. They want you to get used to completely unacceptable behavior. Never become complacent about these things.

Signal Gate was dangerous and demonstrates how reckless and/or incompetent the Secretary of Defense is with classified information. Hegseth famously chatted about attack plans in Yemen on an unclassified platform. Hundreds of thousands of troops have to complete training on how to handle classified, while their bosses do whatever the hell they want. It’s a double-standard and a violation of some pretty basic leadership tenets, never mind the rules about handling classified. If I did what Hegseth did, I would’ve been held accountable. They are incompetent or reckless or both. Lucky for Hegseth, there’s so much shitty news flowing out of the sewer pipe, he’s getting away with it. This week he even joked about it from the stage at a big event. You can see it here. It’s fucking disgusting. These people do not respect the responsibility that they have to safeguard the lives of America’s sons and daughters in uniform.

Second up is the extrajudicial killing of people in boats for non-capital crimes without a trial. You could also just call it premeditated murder. I would learn more about the details of these attacks, but dozens of media organizations were kicked out of the Pentagon for not signing Hegseth’s loyalty oaths. For the first time since 1943, there really isn’t a Pentagon press corps. Hegseth and his bosses have never made a valid legal or constitutional case for the murder of around 60 people so far. (*touches earpiece* I’ve just been told it’s now 16 boats and 67 people. Nope. Since I drafted this, now 18 boats and 70 people murdered.) These attacks are a spectacle and a pretense for the US military buildup in the Caribbean so they can attack Venezuela itself. Or whoever else they decide. Very little cocaine and zero fentanyl comes to our country from Venezuela. And arguably those boats would’ve had to refuel repeatedly even to make it to the US. But since there is no Pentagon press corps, we don’t know who they were, what they were carrying, what they were killed with, and by whom. There has been some attempt to find out who these people were in this article. Violence is being done in our names. We’re just supposed to take their word for it. The 12-year-olds want their own little war, so just trust them. They know what they’re doing.

I mean nobody cares, but this is also a violation of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. They started bombing these boats 60 days ago. So they are required by the War Powers Act of 1973 to get Congress to declare war. But whatevs. Laws are for the little people. (Any desire that Congress had to remain relevant regarding the War Powers Act was scuttled because the Senate voted to keep murdering people this week. And so it goes.)

Lastly, and most dangerous, in my opinion, is the deployment of US troops in our own US cities under false pretenses. Active Duty Marines were deployed to Los Angeles over the objections of the governor and the mayor. A judged ruled that was against the law. But that didn’t stop them. They are now trying to deploy National Guard troops from Texas to Chicago over the objections of the Governor of Illinois and the Mayor of Chicago. They attempted to deploy National Guard troops from California to Portland over the objections of both states’ governors and the Mayor of Portland. There’s a small bit of sanity since a judge just ruled that the administration can’t deploy National Guard troops to Portland because the premise for doing so is a lie. But we already know that these 12-year-olds don’t care about those pesky laws. The VP has already said courts can’t control them. I thought the GOP was all about states’ rights and “law and order” and all that.

What the fuck are we doing?

I didn’t retire from military service deploying to war overseas so I could sit in my own country and watch 12-year-olds with oatmeal for brains deploy military troops to American cities. Now they are building National Guard “quick reaction forces” to deal with “unrest.” They are trying to normalize putting US troops in US cities. This lawless President has repeatedly said that he would like to invoke the Insurrection Act so he can deploy troops throughout the nation. I predict they will do everything in their power, legal or not, to interfere in the 2026 elections.

The military is supposed to be non-partisan. These military deployments into US cities will destroy the relationship between our military and our civilian populace. It will take decades to fix the harm if it isn’t already a permanent wound.

They keep saying there’s an emergency that requires US troop presence. Yeah? Well, where the fuck were you on January 6, 2021? And why did you pardon all 1500 of those assholes? Why did you hire a guy who yelled “kill them” about US Capitol Police on January 6th to work at the DOJ? How many of those assholes are now working for ICE?

Oh yeah, military troops performing law enforcement activities on US soil is prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act.But, I think I’ve established how these 12-year-olds feel about laws. “Law and Order,” my ass.

Call to Action

Well, if you don’t already have your congressmen and senators on speed dial, you’re kind of abdicating your duties. Here’s the 5Calls App to help you call about US troops in US cities anyway.

Enjoy Veterans Day. You want to thank me for my service? Call your elected officials while you still can.