04 October 2019

Unfit for Command

Once upon a time, I said, with many witnesses:

I, having been appointed a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.

And again at each promotion and assumption of command (that's eight offhand).

It is not bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to request a foreign head of state to investigate one of one's own domestic political opponents, regardless of purpose or context. It is not bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to double down by suggesting — in public — that another, more potentially hostile, foreign head of state should also do so in response to objections made when the first request becomes publicly known (and not denied).

You, Orangeskull, have violated the oath of office required of every commissioned officer. You are also the commander in chief of all of those commissioned officers. (Neither you nor any member of your family, however — and virtually none of your non-familial inner circle — have ever worn a military uniform, so Article 133 does not now apply, and never has applied, to you or them. More's the pity.) You are unfit to command, yet you continue to exercise command authority — a high crime or misdemeanor in itself.

One of those principles behind the Constitution that officers of the United States are sworn to "support and defend… against all enemies, foreign and domestic" is civilian control of the military. So I guess you weasel out of that one anyway. But the obvious corollary is that you, as a civilian, cannot undermine those officers in the performance of that solemn duty by blatantly violating it yourself.