Chairman of the Joint Chiefs promises to uphold Constitution, not follow a man. Gen. Mark Milley, the top American service member, made this encouraging statement during the opening of an Army museum Thursday.
“We are unique among militaries. We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oath to a country, a tribe or religion. We take an oath to the Constitution. And every soldier that is represented in this museum, every sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, each of us will protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price,” Milley said during remarks at the opening of the US Army’s museum.
I take this bold statement to mean that the military will not enable Trump to seize power with a military coup.
God bless our troops!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Phew!
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed the higher in rank of those on active duty or retired, the greater the likelihood they would follow Gen. Milley’s sentiments. The lower the rank, the less so. This is not universal, but admittedly a general impression.
There is also a big difference between soldiers who have been in combat and those who have not. I worked in the Senate during the Clinton/gays in the military fiasco and handled the issue. I got hundreds of calls from people who identified themselves as veterans and used a little trick as I spoke to them. I tried to casually work in the answer to the question, were you ever engaged in combat? Those who didn’t see combat were the most vocal in their opposition, those who did could care less. A friend and colleague of mine who was a Vietnam vet and I were sitting at a bar one day after work and it turned out the gruff, crew cut guy sitting next to us saw extensive combat in the Korean War. My friend and he started to exchange stories and then my friend asked, “so what do think about this gays in the military stuff?” I wanted to crawl under the floor. But I can hear his answer as loud today as then. “I was sitting in a fox hole in the Battle of Pork Chop hill getting my ass shot at and I was scared to death. If some gay guy wants to come and take my place, more power to him!”
Interesting stories, Greg.
Thanks, Roy. Strange how the human brain retains certain moments in our lives with crystal clarity as it sheds so many others.
Gen. Mark Milley is not the only general/admiral that has been saying this. Ever since Trump refused to follow tradition and step aside to let the next duly elected president to take over, others have been saying the same thing.
As far back as June if not earlier.
“The nation’s highest-ranking U.S. military officer reminded leaders of the armed forces of their oath to uphold the values of the Constitution, an admonition that came amid concern that President Trump may order active-duty troops onto American streets for the first time in nearly 30 years.
“A one-page memo from Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was among a series of messages released this week by leaders of all the military service branches.” …
https://www.wsj.com/articles/military-leaders-send-missives-to-troops-stay-true-to-the-american-people-11591297582
“Generals Denounce Trump’s Protest Crackdown Plan”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/04/generals-denounce-trump-plan-mattis-milley-allen-esper/
If Trump attempts to put one or more of his loyalists in charge of the U.S. Military, they will be up against the majority of the officer corps in every branch from lieutenants to generals and admirals.
“Now, there are about 1.3 million active-duty personnel or less than one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. population.” At the top are 900 generals/admirals.
I do not think Trump will be able to fire them all. If he is that insane/stupid to try and pull that stunt, the officer core will ignore him and refuse to leave.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military
George Washington took a similar Oath along with his army during the rebellion before we were free of the British Empire.
The Founding Fathers wrote that Oath as our country’s last line of defense against someone like Trump. If the civilian leadership fails to stop Trump, I am confident that the military will stop him and any loyalalists that supports Trump.
I find it ironic that Trump’s emblem is a red MAGA hat. Seems like a match for the British Empire’s red uniform back then.
Thanks, Lloyd, for these links!
“Ever since Trump refused to follow tradition and step aside to let the next duly elected president” When the hell did that happen? There is no “next duly elected president” until the Electoral College elects our next President in December. You might want to brush up on the process. You have to be insane to think that Trump won’t step aside if he is not elected. And of course you probably actually believe the “Russia, Russia, Russia” bs used to undermine his administration over the last four years.
Doug Dufferd “Russia, Russia, Russia” is not only believable, it is plausible given Trump’s history, even without the evidence. CBK
Yes, relief is how I felt on listening to him.
Thank you, General Milley!
These. Are. Immortal. Words. Extraordinarily moving and important.
My take: they deserve to become a permanent part of the U.S. K-12 History curriculum.
I agree. I feel about the military and religion much the same way that Ionesco wrote about the latter in Rhinoceros: “The fact that I despise religion doesn’t mean I don’t esteem it highly.” I respect people like Milley, especially when they link their service to the Constitution, but I remain wary of them. (I guess that what happens with you’re a Catholic school grad who started with nine years of public schools as a military brat.)
Bob “My take: they deserve to become a permanent part of the U.S. K-12 History curriculum.”
As educators, that’s OUR mandate exactly. It gives me chills . . . CBK
There went Mike Pompeo’s “smooth transition to a second Trump administration”.
A don a plan a coup puocanalpanoda!
My mouth dropped when I saw that clip of Pompeo. Republicans are lawless and this ploy is just so sleazy.
Here’s another sleazy ploy from bowels of Bill Barr. ELizabeth Warren was right when she said Barr should have been impeached months ago.
“But critics of Mr. Barr immediately condemned the memo as a political act that undermined the Justice Department’s typical independence from the White House.
Editors’ Picks
Our Food Staff’s 21 Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes
A Guaranteed Monthly Check Changed His Life. Now He Sends Out 650.
Old Dogs, New Research and the Secrets of Aging
“It would be problematic enough if Barr were reversing longstanding Justice Department guidance because of significant, substantiated claims of misconduct — that could presumably be handled at the local and state level,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
“But to do so when there is no such evidence — and when the president’s clear strategy is to delegitimize the results of a proper election — is one of the more problematic acts of any attorney general in my lifetime,” Mr. Vladeck added.”
The most disturbing part was how he smirked when he said it.
But I suspect after General Milley’s statement which was obviously aimed directly at folks like Pompeo, Mikey is probably no longer smirking.
Mikey is the middle school bully who never grew up.
People like Pompeo, Trump, Barr, Bannon, etc have spent their lives twisting people’s arms to give them their sandwiches and cookies.
I doubt there will be, but if there is a coup attempt, I’m pretty sure Mikey will be the first to hide under the Resolute Desk (if he will fit)
Trump will undoubtedly have beat him to the spot. So Mikey will have to find another hiding place.
I guess that would make Mikey the second to hide under the desk
Sorry for any confusion I might have caused
Pompeo is now poking the hornet’s nest, needlessly goading China into a confrontation over Taiwan.
Pompeo is a pompous ass. A very fat one at that. The first time I ever became aware of him was when Hillary handed him his fat ass at the marathon Stalinist hearing of the Government Oversight hearing where they tried to tar and feather her without avail. But I guess the pompous ass got the last laugh.
A minor point, but wouldn’t that be spelled “pompeous”?
pompeous: so pompous that you believe that everything in the universe revolves around you (including the sun, stars and all the galaxies in the universe) See “trumpeous.”
Trump, of course, is really, really dumb, and like other really dumb people, he just doesn’t get irony. There are news reports today that Trump is getting ready to fire his official in charge of national election cybersecurity because this man had the audacity to say to the press that he and other election security officials nationwide did their jobs and that we had a secure election.
Evidently, Trump believes that a person should be retained if he or she HASN’T done his or her job. Evidently, if the head of election security had claimed that he hadn’t done his job and the election was a sham, he would be in the President’s perverse graces.
But the same is true throughout the Trump maladministration. Vlad got his money’s worth from his useful idiot, Agent Orange. Across the government, Trump managed to install leaders of agencies and departments dedicated to incapacitating them, to undermining or eliminating their express purposes. A prime example is Ditzy DeVos, who is nominally the federal official in charge of education, including, most importantly, our public schools, who has done everything in her power to destroy public schools. And then there are the Trump EPA and Interior political appointees who have done everything that they can to wreck the environment. One could go on and on.
In some regards he is dumb, but when it comes to the most critical thing — what Trump accomplished for Republicans — it’s hard to claim he was dumb. He knew exactly what he was doing and was actually quite competent at his seeming incompetence.
For decades, Republicans have pursued Grover Norquist’s expressed goal of shrinking the government down enough that it could be drowned in the bathtub.
The only way you can accomplish that is by undermining the faith of the American people in their government.
The fact that many people no longer even trust the CDC is proof positive of “Mission Accomplished!”
The damage that has been done is very difficult to reverse.
Trump is an evil genius when it comes to burning down businesses & then convincing people that he alone saved it. He’s a moron at everything else.
Through lies and manipulation he created a powerful cult of personality. It is a dangerous accomplishment. Republicans are starting to face facts too. He is talking about running in 2024. Yikes.
Trump is not the only Republican who has convinced lots of people that he saved businesses by burning them down.
Mitt Romney is another. And perhaps the scariest part is that Romney has even fooled a lot of Democrats.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-183291/
In Massachusetts, lots of Democrats voted for Romney for governor over his Democratic opponent.
I had two Democratic housemates at the time who voted for Romney, despite my informing them about Bain’s methods and about Romney’s keeping two primary residences — one in Utah and one in Massachusetts — so that he could claim residency in either place for the purpose of running for office. Of course, after the facts came out, Romney claimed it was all just an honest clerical error.
Romney is a hysterical error.
Romney is just a liar, not unlike someone else we know.
Re: Romney comments above. I’ve been hooked on the fourth series of Fargo which has a character who is a policeman and a devout Mormon. In the episode, as he makes a deal with a crime boss. Loved this piece of dialogue:
Boss: I like you.
Police: We Mormons are very friendly people.
Boss: No, pretty unfriendly, really. But it’s the way you’re unfriendly. Like you’re doing me a favor.
I worked with and knew many honest very nice Mormons when I lived in Utah.
Above all else, Romney is a fake.
Not my take, SomeDAM. I see Trump as Vlad’s and McConnell’s useful idiot. With someone in charge who cares about nothing but himself, the Repugnicans and Vlad have been able to use Trump’s sole interest–self interest–to further their goal of drowning U.S. governance in the bathtub. As long as Trump saw these people as being to his advantage, they were able to get him to do anything. Anything. Abandon allies. Undermine NATO. Gut regulations that protect Americans.
I agree, SDP, my personal interactions with every Mormon I’ve ever met have been respectful and positive. Just loved that line. Also agree on Romney, but oddly, I’m warming to the idea of him being Biden’s HHS secretary. There is a delicious irony that he ran away from ACA as a presidential candidate and now may be tasked with saving and expanding it. His nomination would also stymie a lot of GOP criticisms. There, after all, have to be a Republican or two on the cabinet in order to put some meat on the bone of Biden’s pledge to try to heal national political discourse.
The frightening thing about all of this is that the erosion of trust in the democratic process has been accomplished precisely by its success. Russia must be popping the corks. Without any successful moves on their part, they have an almost perfectly divided America and United Kingdom.
Roy Yes, but it remains and will remain an experiment, on principle.
I was remembering this morning the morning ritual in my K-12 education:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
When I was going to school, there was no conflict with the “under God” idea.
But though I said those words every morning for years, I really didn’t know what they meant; and wouldn’t know . . . until I realized much later in college what it would mean NOT to live in such a place.
In other words, all through K-12 no one explored for us the different kinds of political orders and what happens to people in the real world in those different orders. It was from learning about WWII, fascism, the Holocaust, in my liberal studies programs that revealed the meaning of that pledge of allegiance I said daily, and so long ago. CBK
Nailed it, Roy.
Thank you Gen. Mark Milley for this timely reminder.
“No coup for you!”
LMAO
“God bless our troops!”
Which mythical Abrahamic sky-daddy would that be?
my God, not yours
Diane If I may add my comments to Duane/Linda/Greg: I respect, but would be careful with propounding atheism, especially as religious hate. I also respect and agree with rejecting the horrors of toxic religion–any religion, but EVEN atheism insofar as it ITSELF too-easily becomes tribal and totalitarian.
In the long-term, such whole-fisted rejection of religion that we see end up in fascist regimes is tribal to its core, but having rid itself of traditional tribal and religious meaning . . . insofar as it keeps its little power group together, but rejects out-of-hand the care and wholehearted love of family and tribal members, in our time the HUMAN FAMILY, as well as disregard of the natural world, and an openness to the mysterious beyond that all forms of religion bring to culture when both religion and culture are just that: cultured.
A short-sighted rejectionist atheism is an invitation to fascism, as sure as toxic religion is an invitation to authoritarian regimes who, in our time, are aimed at turning fascist, and where the fascist only uses atheist and religious extremists for their dupes to secure their own megalomaniac power. I think we all should learn to feel the manipulating fascist hands in our backs.
There are no substantial parties for fascist regimes . . . Both religious names and “Republican” are merely sheep’s clothing for fascist intentions. CBK
Catherine:
“but would be careful with propounding atheism, especially as religious hate.”
Not hate, that’s a very specious sentiment there. It’s calling a spade a spade, that spade being that to base a pluralistic society on sectarian religious faith beliefs is absurd.
Almost all Americans (not including my children at least) are brought up being taught not only to believe in fantastical, mythological faith beliefs, but also that it is “hateful” (to use your word), impolite and downright ornery to question anyone’s sky-daddy beliefs. And that insistence on allowing and believing in fantasies forms the fundamental flawed basis of most American’s thinking. As Voltaire noted: “Those who can make you believe absurdities [faith beliefs] can make you commit atrocities.”
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition!
Duane You say: “Not hate, that’s a very specious sentiment there. It’s calling a spade a spade, that spade being that to base a pluralistic society on sectarian religious faith beliefs is absurd.”
I agree with that wholeheartedly. Who’s suggesting doing that? Certainly not me. I can walk and chew gum. CBK
“A short-sighted rejectionist atheism is an invitation to fascism, as sure as toxic religion is an invitation to authoritarian regimes who, in our time, are aimed at turning fascist, and where the fascist only uses atheist and religious extremists for their dupes to secure their own megalomaniac power.”
Not at all. Your argument is one that belies the inherent absurdity of faith-beliefs, especially those of the three Abrahamic religions. It is the faith-believers who make up the majority of those who turn to authoritarian regimes because that is the mode of thinking of those faith belief systems. You are projecting one of the most hideous parts of faith belief systems, that of obeying an all powerful deity as one’s duty onto those who don’t believe that nonsense-the atheist. And that obeisance of faith beliefs form the basis for obeisance to the authoritarian.
Confusing and conflating atheism with religious extremists is wrong, false and nonsense. Yours is a typical religionista apologetics for excusing beliefs in the unbelievable. “Oh my religion is not like the religious extremists”. Horse manure, you both have the same basis in irreality that is faith belief.
Duane I don’t know who I fear worst: the toxic religious authoritarian or the toxic atheist authoritarian. Maybe it’s not the religious person or the atheist, but the toxicity that is the problem . . . and that’s a very human thing.
And please stop projecting your worn out negative analyses onto the way I or others think. It’s unbecoming. CBK
One of the better versions of a great song:
Uh, no. It means he will defend the Constitution, which is exactly what he said. It is the democrats that are constantly NOT abiding by the Constitution and even stated that it’s “outdated” and some want to get RID of it entirely!! I’d say he’s going to do what is RIGHT, which isn’t allowing this election to be stolen. THAT would be unconstitutional!
Pashta,
Not a single judge or election official, not even Republican election officials, assert that the election was stolen. The Constitution says that the candidate who wins the electoral college wins the election. Biden has won 306. Trump lost. The Constitution says he has to leave the White House on January 20.
Pashta Go away, please. CBK
He’s definitely RIGHT, very, very far at that. But in no way correct or constitutionally consistent. Another example of the power of this blog. The trolls come out of the wormy woodwork to try to spoil it and only expose themselves for the lowlifes they are.
And your response to their nonsense???
¿Must I respond to this nonsense?
Actually, it’s more like Trump is trying to circumvent and/or rewrite the US Constitution. ☹️
It’s an honor. One of my best students works for dismissed Chair. He’s a Navy Seal Officer on Strategic budgets for covert operations and both his parents are public school teachers from LAUSD. He was the best soul of a kid and I talked him out of the Navy Academy and he went to Harvard and majored in Classics with Arabic language too. 🙂
On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 8:57 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” As reported by CNN: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs > promises to uphold Constitution, not follow a man. Gen. Mark Milley, the > top American service member, made this encouraging statement during the > opening of an Army museum Thursday. “We are unique am” >
I am proud to have served in the United States Navy. Read the book “Seven Days in May”
Reignites my faith in our country.
Great news. The law and justice will prevail. God bless America and God bless our troops. I am so happy.