Joint Chiefs To Trump: That's Not How Any Of This Works
If Trump disrespects the military, we're going to have bigger problems.
When are these colonies gonna rise up? (Photo Getty)
Yesterday, I pointed out that Donald Trump’s transgender ban was something Trump can do, but hasn’t actually done yet. Because a tweet is not an “order.”
Today, Joe Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — and future dictator-for-life, if things keep going like this — gave President Trump some “guidance” in how to actually command the most lethal military on Earth. From Politico:
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“I know there are questions about yesterday’s announcement on the transgender policy by the President,” Dunford wrote in the internal communication, a copy of which was provided to POLITICO. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.”
“In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions,” he continued.
You can’t just sit on your toilet and blast out tweets that count as “orders” that men and women at arms will respect. That’s just not how it works. There is a process for issuing commands, and until Trump follows that process, this transgender ban is nothing.
Having troops respect your orders is, you know, a thing that has vexed civilian commanders for all of human history. Our system of civilian oversight over the men with guns is rare and valuable and yet another deeply important norm that Donald Trump seems eager to piss away. Do we want Joe Dunford ignoring orders from civilian commanders? Probably NOT, ultimately. But it’s the president’s responsibility to issue orders that are clear, which the military can follow and respect.
His failure to do so here is just another thing that moves us down the road to the ultimate destruction of our republic. Telling the military to take their orders from Twitter humiliates them. It’s disrespectful to a group of people who are really into the concept of “respect.” If Trump thinks he can treat the armed services like one of his staffer lackeys, he’s going to be in for a surprise. If he thinks the military is as afraid of him as, say, the U.S. House of Representatives, he’s in for a surprise that is potentially dangerous to all of us.
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Joe Dunford’s statement subtly asks the president to do two things:
1. Follow the goddamn chain of command, and don’t put the military in the position of divining directives from Twitter.
2. “Continue to treat all of our personnel with respect.”
Failure to do either of those things could damage the always fragile balance between civilians leading people and generals leading armies.
We are stumbling towards a fight that is much bigger than transgender rights. I don’t think Trump wants to force people to choose a side between himself and the generals. This is how republics die.
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Joint Chiefs to troops: ‘No modifications’ to transgender policy [Politico]
Earlier:
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.
