He quietly urged other military personnel to reflect on their own positions. “They should be confident in questioning possibly immoral or illegal orders,” he said, “remembering they are responsible for their own actions, and knowing others are asking the same questions.”
“If they have doubts about their orders, they are not alone,”
He made the problem worse?
He’s been there long enough for retirement. If he fought Trump he’d be dishonorably discharged and lose all retirement pay, all medical benefits, and you’ll have a record that is equivalent to having a felony.
By quitting now he’s ensuring the welfare of his family.
It’s not ensured. They can still take away his rank and pay in retirement.
They can, but it’s far less likely than if he stayed in and was put in a position where he had to refuse orders.
True. But retiring now will reduce risk.
The statement stands because by the time the military turn on Trump properly (if they ever do) we can’t just assume they’d fail.
They’re one of the few groups capable of intervening.
Like that could stop Trump at this point. He do it and DOJ would just watch.
And if instead, he later said “I didn’t want to do these bad things, but I had to play the part, because if I left someone worse would replace me!” then the comments would also say he’s part of the problem.
His choices are lose/lose, we made sure of that.
Fascists having less competent soldiers is far from worse, hopefully more and more walk away.
Now is a great time, too, since they’re not getting paid and if any of them are laid off the Trump admin has stated they won’t recieve backpay, which the Trump admin has confirmed is the plan.
It isn’t even about competence.
It is about not having the bodies to subjugate a people. And The People choosing to not menacingly wave a gun at “protesters” because they want a paycheck.
Further, if the enlistees who aren’t going to comply with illegal orders are still isolated individuals, they’re more likely to meet with ah… unfortunate accidents…
They are creating a culture of fear, distrust and a need to keep families fed, everything seen, everything heard.
There will be a tipping point, the direction is unseen. US citizens are still waiting for a savior, willfully blind it’s us or no one.
While in service, he is bound by duty to follow orders that are legal… and the Supreme Court said anything the President does is legal. Once out of service, he can choose to follow his own conscious and fight how he sees fit.
Well, yeah. If he is serving an orange rapist then he is bound to serve said rapist.
Oh, are you still pretending the military serves The People? Because, homei, them mother fuckers have had PLENTY of opportunities to actually protect The People and The Constitution. They choose to Just Follow Orders and either be guns ready to oppress The People or stand by while The People are oppressed.
We 'bout to talk about how Joker’s minions have no choice but to do what he asks them to and shouldn’t be held accountable?
Yeah, he stepped down and that is one less soldier for the Nazis. But he has been getting paid and trained to “serve” for decades and the moment he actually had to consider serving The People rather than protecting his own interests? He bloomberg’d out.
Or: the moment he had to consider doing something that was against The People, he honorably left. You seem to have this rather naive and ridiculous notion that some colonel has access to some network of willing soldiers who will gladly become a ragtag group of unstoppable superheroes against a million strong military that for the most part loves what the President is doing. Yeah, there are a lot of individuals who hate what Trump is doing, but those are mostly officers who have a stronger sense of duty than the people whom they command. And colonels don’t wield all that much power, either.
Also, since you seem to think he should have done something to “serve” The People in his role, what concrete ideas do you have for him to have done?
I very much argue that moment happened back in 2021 when the military chose to do absolutely nothing while an outgoing government official tried to violently overthrow the government, but sure.
He left. Good on him. That is why I said, elsewhere, that there was one less body to support the nazis.
Absolute bare minimum? More of the military should be doing this. But that is the thing, it is the “bare minimum”
My issue is you, and many others, trying to justify serving a rapist because they are legally required to follow orders. We’ve been through this: if your justification for an atrocity is “I was just following orders” then you are a monster. And if your justification for other people oppressing you is “they are just following orders” you are a boot licker waiting for the leopards to eat your face.
No, I’m trying to justify him NOT serving a rapist. You seemed to be angry that he chose to stop serving a rapist. Now you are saying I’m a boot licker because I am happy he is no longer serving a rapist and isn’t doing stuff that is oppressing people??? He is no longer “just following orders,” so why are you angry? Your anger is kind of all over the place.
You also never answered my request for what concrete steps do you want him to do other than retire. You are one of those people who get all angry and complain but then don’t have any recommended solutions.
I am angry because he served a rapist up until two weeks ago. I am angry because people are so obsessed with worshiping the military even as the military is increasingly the backup dancers to ICE.
Again, this is the absolute bare minimum. It should be treated as such.
As for your ad hominem
Believe it or not but some things you don’t discuss on a publicly readable message board. Weird, I know.
Also it is increasingly obvious he is going the “I’m going to pretend I care and write a book about it” route but…