Offering Up Military and Intelligence Communities as Political Cannon Fodder
By Andy Caldwell
(This oped was submitted before the National Guardsman shooting in DC)
You must have heard about the six U.S. Senators who stated that the threats to our Constitution are emanating from the Trump administration and therefore both the military and intelligence community should refuse so-called “illegal orders.” Specifically, they stated, “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens... We need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution, and who we are as Americans.”
These senators are, of course, being too clever by half. By stating that “threats are emanating,” they certainly sought to imply that Trump is already issuing illegal orders. We know what they are hoping to do. They are hoping that neither the military nor the CIA will follow through on bombing narco-terrorist boats in the Caribbean, and that troops will no longer accept deployment to major US cities to protect federal installations under attack by protestors who are attacking ICE and Border Patrol agents, up to and including, attempted, and now possible first-degree murder.
There is a silence here that is beyond deafening. In what way, shape, or form, have any of these senators, let alone the entire Democratic Party, shown any concern whatsoever about the narco-war being waged against the citizens of the United States? Over 105,000 people die from drug overdoses every year. Moreover, 76% of those deaths are from opioids, mostly related to fentanyl, and drug overdoses have killed over 1.25 million people since 1999. The vast majority of these drugs are being illegally imported into the United States primarily by way of land and sea. Over one million dead Americans and counting, and the “Constitutional crisis” is Trump trying to shut off the supply of the same?
The ”Nullification” of Presidential Orders
We all know about Democrat effort to close the border to not only illicit drugs, but also the narco-terrorists, Islamic terrorists, the Mexican drug cartels, the Chinese Triad, and others. Their combined effort was zero, zilch, nada. In fact, as president, Joe Biden did the opposite. Instead of using the Border Patrol to stop the invasion of some 12+ million people into this country illegally, he took the Border Patrol personnel off their patrols to help them process the illegals coming into our country. Now that Trump is trying to round up the worst of the worst, including those with final orders to deport, those with a criminal record, and those who trafficked minors, Democrats are urging a revolution against his orders.
To try and undermine our President, who is also our Commander-in-Chief, is extremely dangerous. These senators are asking our troops and intelligence community to make a judgement as to what is an illegal order because they can’t turn to our courts any longer for nationwide injunctions. Nationwide injunctions are court orders that prevent the federal government from implementing a policy or law that has a cascading effect impacting the entire country, not just the parties involved in the court case.
America’s strength against losing our Constitution lies in the brilliance of our founding fathers to separate the balance of powers among the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Because the Democrat Party won’t accept the reality that Trump has won two elections, and because they have lost control of the House, they have turned to lawfare to stop Trump at all costs. That is, they have sought to manipulate, obfuscate, and delay, Trump’s ability to govern by using the judicial branch to bludgeon democracy.
Democrats Call for Mutiny
Trump’s first administration faced more than half of all nationwide injunctions in the last six decades, 64 injunctions out of a total of 127 nationwide injunctions issued since 1963. Thankfully, the Supreme Court delivered a monumental victory for the Constitution, striking down the excessive use of nationwide injunctions to interfere with the normal functioning of the executive branch.
Now that Democrats have lost their ability to handcuff Trump by way of the House and our courts, they are turning to the members of our armed services and the intelligence community to block Trump’s mandate to govern. In essence, they want the very agencies that directly report to Trump to accomplish their political agenda because they don’t have a majority in Congress and they have been rebuked by the Supreme Court as it involves nationwide injunctions.
And they claim Trump is the threat to our Constitution?
These senators – and the members of their own party who will not censure them – are hoping to foment nothing short of a defacto mutiny to stop Trump. These senators have, at a minimum, violated their oath of office, and worse, are guilty of sedition. They need to pay a price before America finds itself in the middle of an outright civil war. Their actions are part of a pattern to upend the Trump administration by hook and crook for the umpteenth time, dangerously so.
Andy Caldwell, Executive Director, COLAB
*****
Please help spread the word about the value and readability of SBCurrent.com by sharing this article with friends and neighbors. Use the button below or copy the URL to share, ensuring they too stay well-informed. Thank you.
*****
Community Calendar:
Got a Santa Barbara event for our community calendar? Fenkner@sbcurrent.com
The recent calls by members of Congress to disobey “unlawful” orders is at the very least ill advised, and a dangerous slippery slope. Aren’t “unlawful” orders already covered by the UCMJ? Shooting of civilians, mistreatment of prisoners, torturing of enemy combatants, ALL covered already by the UCMJ and enforced by the Judge Advocate Generals Corps (JAG). Clearly, there are laws covering “unlawful” acts by the military which was dramatically portrayed recently in the movie, “Nuremberg.” The Geneva Convention was established after WW II for the very reason of creating a legal framework to set the rules of war.
The very act of putting into question, a legally established precedent is criminal if the intent is to promote a mutiny by military personnel.
Mark Kelly, who is a retired Naval Field Grade Officer, and the other ELECTED OFFICIALS did exactly that. Calls for the military to mutiny, incitement of the military to question lawful orders is a criminal offense.
This is where we are today as Democrats are trying to derail the Trump administration from within. Incitement of members of the military and intelligence services to disobey and question the orders by the Commander in Chief, certainly can be argued as an act of treason.
The Democratic Party, in collaboration with multiple Non-Governmental Agencies are actively trying to close, and dismantle a dually elected government. The shooting and killing of National Guard troops is just the latest example of the lengths those willing to go in order to promote our downfall as a society.
Democratic leadership is morphing into a band of criminality and chaos. Not since the Civil War and the Confederacy, led by Jefferson Davis, has our Union been is such peril.
The “Seditious Six” needs to face the full weight of the Department of Justice.
Here we go again.
This represents a complete failure to understand human behavior. Since you often cite the Bible, it should teach you everything you need to know about this subject. The Bible discusses temptation extensively—James 1:12 states, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation..." Temptation has existed since before the invention of religion; the Bible simply documents what has always been part of human nature.
Our country has already tried your approach with Prohibition. It failed. You cannot regulate away temptation because doing so attempts to regulate human behavior itself.
This means the problem isn't the supply of drugs but rather the demand for them. Basic capitalism teaches that without demand, there is no supply. This should lead us to examine why the demand exists, along with understanding that due to human nature, we can only hope to reduce—not eradicate—drug usage.
Before repeatedly focusing on the imported supply issue, consider how every time a barrier has arisen, people have found alternative ways to achieve the same feeling. What were the drugs of choice in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and now the 2020s? It wasn't fentanyl in the 60s and 70s—fentanyl only became a significant issue about ten years ago. Opioid usage predates religion itself. Synthetic drugs have over 200 years of history, with morphine being outlawed numerous times. Consider the Civil War—what would have happened without morphine? The point is that drug preferences change, and drugs can be manufactured domestically. When people seek that feeling, they will find a method to obtain it. Temptation is powerful.
Now to your continued mischaracterizations: "Now that Trump is trying to round up the worst of the worst, including those with final orders to deport, those with a criminal record, and those who trafficked minors, Democrats are urging a revolution against his orders." You've lumped all these people together inappropriately. Someone with a final deportation order is not necessarily "the worst of the worst." That person may have never committed any crime beyond overstaying their visa. Equating them with rapists, murderers, or robbers is absurd. This is where conservatives fail to understand basic English: "one" does not mean "all." One is singular. Some means more than one but not all. All means everyone. Your constant conflation of these terms suggests either illiteracy or a deliberate agenda.
Regarding the senators' statement—they're simply reaffirming what is already established law. Here is the Army's oath of enlistment: "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
See that line about the UCMJ? That references Article 92, which addresses unlawful orders. In your worldview, if the President ordered an Army private to murder a civilian on Park Avenue, that would be a legal order. It is not.
You write: "America's strength against losing our Constitution lies in the brilliance of our founding fathers to separate the balance of powers among the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Because the Democrat Party won't accept the reality that Trump has won two elections, and because they have lost control of the House, they have turned to lawfare to stop Trump at all costs."
Your first sentence is entirely accurate. The second is incoherent. You're making an "all" claim that isn't supported by facts. I don't see Democrats in office claiming Trump didn't win. The irony of using "lawfare"—a term describing what happens to every administration—reveals your lack of principle. How many state attorneys general sued the Biden administration? How many sued Trump's first administration? How many sued Obama, Bush Jr., Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan? It goes on and on. Your own first sentence explains this accurately: the opposing party will always use available mechanisms to impede the other side.