One of the worst things that’s happened in America since Obama began his presidency is that the Pentagon began to abandon its constitutional non-partisan and apolitical stance. This dangerous trend revealed itself again today as Pentagon officials, hiding behind anonymity, gloated to Politico about Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox.
For centuries, the American military has been studiously non-partisan. Its job is to defend the Constitution and the American people, and its commander-in-chief is not a party but, instead, the person that the American people elected as president. Shortly before the 2016 election, Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made this clear to all active duty military personnel:
Whoever becomes president of the United States on Jan. 20 needs to have trust and confidence that the military “is completely loyal and completely prepared to do what must be done,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.
“Importantly, as an institution, the American people cannot be looking at us as a special-interest group or a partisan organization,” Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford told reporters traveling with him. “They have to look at us as an apolitical organization that swears an oath to the Constitution of the United States -- not an individual, not a party, not a branch of government -- the Constitution of the United States.”
In the old days, officers who violated this obligation were swiftly relieved of command for making overtly political comments (i.e., criticizing the president). Nowadays, of course, they’re relieved of command for publicly criticizing policies that may affect military readiness (i.e., expressing concern about “equity” initiatives).
Image: The Pentagon. Public domain.
With increasing frequency, high military officials are trumpeting their political party allegiances. While the troops loved Trump, several Pentagon officials made no secret that they did not feel they owed him any allegiance, while the ones who might have supported him were seemingly purged. And of course, the most obvious example of the abandonment of constitutional loyalty to the president is Mark Milley’s assurance to China that, should Trump exercise his constitutional prerogative to order a strike, Milley would forewarn it.
This troubling politicization showed itself again in a Politico report about celebrations in the Pentagon upon learning that Tucker Carlson, an obviously political figure who criticized the Pentagon’s conduct, was leaving Fox:
From maternity flight suits to diversity policies to Ukraine aid, the military was a favorite punching bag for Tucker Carlson. Now that he’s off the air, some Pentagon officials are quietly cheering his departure.
Carlson’s criticism of Biden-era personnel policies appealed to many of the rank-and-file, which has a large bloc of conservative members. But at the upper levels of the Defense Department, news of Carlson’s firing from Fox News on Monday was met with delight and outright glee in some corners.
“We’re a better country without him bagging on our military every night in front of hundreds of thousands of people,” said one senior DoD official, who like others interviewed for this story was granted anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive topic.
“Good riddance,” said a second DoD official.
Asked to respond to the news that DoD officials are pleased by his departure from Fox, Carlson responded by text message: “Ha! I’m sure.” He declined to comment further.
I especially love that line about Politico granting these officials “anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive topic.” This is not about sensitivity. This is about the official’s failure to refrain from discussing any political topics. Again, ours is supposed to be a non-partisan, apolitical military, one that sees active-duty officers and other officials keeping their mouths shut.
Once, the military was the most trusted institution in America. Because Democrats have politicized it, Americans’ trust in the military is rapidly declining, and deservedly so. At least half of America feels that the military has abandoned its mission of defending the Constitution and our nation and, instead, is dedicated to using social justice policies to turn it into the military branch of the Democrat party. Seeing the military celebrate Tucker’s departure will only increase this decline in respect and growing fear of the institution.