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2019-11-25 Home Front: Culture Wars
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Fire the Admirals to Encourage the Others
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It's Kurt
[Townhall] Mark this day on your calendar because here is the moment that I admit that Barack Obama did something right. He fired Army General Stanley McChrystal.
Now, I would have fired him well before for failing to win the Afghanistan War. In World War II, which America incidentally won, we fired lots of generals and admirals for failing to win. It was nothing personal. You aren’t winning, so "Next!" Obama did (gently) fire McChrystal’s predecessor for failing to win; he was a good officer who, by coincidence, was literally onstage talking to my Army War College class the moment Obama’s firing of McChrystal was announced. But that’s about the only big-name general fired for not winning since the not-coincidentally Endless War on Terror™ began.
Continued from Page 4
Anyway, Obama fired McChrystal because McChrystal surrounded himself with a staff that included petulant and childish folks who decided it was a smart idea to run down the commander-in-chief and Veep Joe Biden to a Rolling Stone reporter, who published it.
Look, I am second to none in my love of mocking the proud papa of unproud papa Hoover Biden, noted dope-huffing loser and Ukrainian gas industry expert, but when you are a general, you can’t disrespect the CinC or CinC, Jr. That doesn’t work. Similarly, President Donald Trump needs to relieve the commander of the Naval Special Forces Command. And then he needs to relieve that guy’s boss for failing to relieve his subordinate. Oh, and he also needs to relieve the chief of information, or whatever they call the head public affairs guy for the Navy, for allowing his command to issue passive aggressive statements disrespectful of the President.
...Here’s what happened. The president used his constitutional prerogative to pardon or otherwise restore the rank of three accused military personnel, which some of us in the military community had mixed feelings about but which some flag officers vehemently opposed. The most clearly correct action was the restoration of the rank of SEAL Eddie Gallagher. His shameful prosecution had been replete with JAG misconduct, including the mind boggling decision of the prosecutors to electronically spy on defense attorneys. Beyond this outrage ‐ and I note, incredulously, that apparently no one was prosecuted for doing it ‐ these hacks put up on the stand an immunized witness who testified that he killed the alleged ISIS victim. Gallagher was acquitted of everything except some piddling charge of taking a selfie with a terrorist stiff and still had the book thrown at him.
Well, after the acquittal, the JAGs decided to award each other medals. Medals. Not indictments for their eavesdropping antics. Not letters of reprimand for their staggering incompetence. Medals. President Trump got wind of this and had to personally direct that these defective decorations be withdrawn. Fast forward to the restoration of Gallagher’s rank and what happens next? The Naval Special Forces commander, apparently the next day, initiated a proceeding to take Gallagher’s SEAL trident, his status as a special warfare operator.
...In any case, the president was unequivocal about what he wanted, and this pipsqueak admiral publicly defied and disrespected him. Then Trump tweeted that it was not going to happen. What should have happened is the Chief of Naval Operations should have picked up the phone breathing fire, but he didn’t, and it got worse. Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, Chief of Information, issued a statement reading:
"The Navy follows the lawful orders of the President. We will do so in case of an order to stop the administrative review of SOC Gallagher's professional qualification. We are aware of the President's tweet and we are awaiting further guidance."
At the same time, according to NPR, the Navy pressed on with its administrative review of Gallagher’s status.
This is intolerable.
Fire them all.
The commander-in-chief made clear his intent. Then, when he found out the Navy was defying him, he expressed his intent again, and they still drove on with their defiance. And then the press flacks for the Navy issued their passive aggressive statement and pretended that his expression of intent did not constitute a clear and unequivocal order.
...As much as the admirals ‐ who really ought to have a bit more humility in light of the Navy’s recent demonstrated inability to perform its basic task of sailing ships without crashing them into other ships ‐ might not approve of Trump, approving of him is not their job. While in the civilian government worker force there appears to be a Trump Exception™ to the powers of the presidency, there cannot be one within the military. This is an unprecedented breach of military discipline that must be swiftly, mercilessly and publicly crushed, here and now. 
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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-11-25 01:29||
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