That’s the message from a recent video featuring six Democratic members of Congress, all former members of the US armed forces and/or intelligence services, and directed at current members of those organizations.
Seems non-controversial, but someone else would like a word. Er, several words:
“Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? … SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
As you’ve probably guessed, that someone else is US president Donald Trump.
And he’s not just talking. He’s had US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth threaten to recall one of the politicians in question, US Senator Mark Kelly, to active duty in the Navy for a potential court-martial. He’s having the Federal Bureau of Investigation request “interviews” with with all six politicians.
Yes, really.
But, like I said, the whole thing seems uncontroversial. This is, to use a turn of phrase Trump seems to like, a “witch hunt.”
It’s been 40 years since I spent the summer in San Diego becoming a US Marine. I’m sure things have changed since then, but I doubt they’ve changed so much that anyone graduates any armed forces boot camp without receiving instruction in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A summary, from memory, on the section (Article 92) concerning orders:
You must obey lawful orders.
You must not obey unlawful orders.
As I recall it, the case my platoon’s instructor used as an example was Lt. William Calley’s conduct in Vietnam during an event later known as the “My Lai Massacre.”
Here’s what the US Court of Military Appeals had to say about Calley’s defense that he was “just following orders”:
“An order requiring the performance of a military duty may be inferred to be legal. An act performed manifestly beyond the scope of authority, or pursuant to an order that a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know to be illegal, or in a wanton manner in the discharge of a lawful duty, is not excusable.”
Calley served three years (of a life sentence) for the murders at My Lai.
Why? Because you must refuse illegal orders.
If it’s “treason” or “sedition” to state that fact, then every instructor in every basic training class on military law is a traitor who’s been teaching treason and preaching sedition to every recruit since 1950, when the UCMJ was adopted … and probably long before that.
Would these particular politicians have made this particular video if it was a Democrat issuing illegal orders from the White House?
Probably not, but they’re right anyway.
Note to military and intelligence personnel:
You must refuse illegal orders.
If this be treason, make the most of it.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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