Not a photo-essay

 

Because no one’s having any demonstrations anytime soon, can’t add photos of one.

This TPM piece documents a lot of what Trump is doing today and most of it follows a theme of the new Trump team is using wildly improper criteria to attack political opponents. As I was in the Navy for around a decade (PN3, USN, 1991-2001), I’ll comment on the attempt to prosecute military people for the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

After World War II, the Allies held the Nuremberg Tribunals for members of the Nazi Wehrmacht. They established an international law that certain orders were illegal. For the military person to say “I was just following orders” simply isn’t a legitimate excuse. Even if our Commander-in-Chief or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs tells a Seaman Recruit or a Private to commit a war crime and the war crime is then committed, the Sailor or Soldier can be prosecuted for having followed an illegal order.

Were any illegal orders given from either President Trump or from President Biden concerning the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan? Right now, Trump’s people are deciding whether or not to create

a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, how it was carried out and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason,

But if no one in the military was given an illegal order, it’s difficult to see how anyone could be prosecuted. If the military simply did as either president instructed them to and none of the orders given were abusive towards civilians or prisoners and if no illegal armaments, such as poison gas, were ordered to be used, it’s difficult to see how any prosecution could proceed.

If the withdrawal from Afghanistan was presidential policy, which I believe it was, then that was not something that military people of any rank had any say over.

Let’s say a Major General (two stars) ordered his division (three brigades) to attack and one of the Colonels (in charge of one of the brigades) decided “Nah, it isn’t the right time to attack, the Major General is wrong,” then the Colonel would quite properly be court-martialed for insubordination. The Colonel can’t claim that “I was given an illegal order” because the action ordered falls under standard, everyday, expected actions.

What Trump’s people are trying to do is to prosecute military people for following the instructions of their Commander-in-Chief, for following legitimate, legal orders.

It’s difficult for me to see any legitimate reason to do this. Unfortunately, this is not the only example of overreach cited in the TPM piece.