The Democrats and the Military

The Army and the Air Force have warned troops “that it is a crime for officers to express contempt for the nation’s political leaders,” according to a story in the Washington Post. (One wonders whether this crime has been tested against the First Amendment).

The warnings were sent by Brig. Gen. Jack Rives, described by the post as “the top lawyer for the Air Force’s Air Combat Command,” and Col. James Rosenblatt, described as “the staff judge advocate for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.” According to the Post, the Army sent its message after Rosenblatt saw the Air Force message.

The warnings are based on Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, violation of which can lead to dismissal from service and a year in prison. Despite this fact, the Navy and Marine Corps have not issued such warnings.

At first, one might be angered that military personnel, deprived of their voting rights as American citizens, may face punishment for speaking out against the pack of thieves known as Al Gore’s legal team.

It is of course essential to military discipline in a republic such as the united States that the military be subservient to the political institutions. To have things the other way around would make us truly a banana republic. Despite this fact, the military has been treated in a most despicable way by the Democratic party.

Consider the fact that this is not the first run-in of this kind between the Democrats and the military. One of Bill Clinton’s first acts in office was to promulgate the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy effectively allowing homosexuals to serve in the military. Shortly thereafter, an admiral was reprimanded for saying publicly that he could not guarantee Clinton’s safety on a visit to an aircraft carrier.

Surely the Clinton administration, and Al Gore – that brainiac master of details – must have heard about Article 88 of the Code of Military Justice at that time.

One wonders whether it came into play when Clinton invoked his “active duty” status as Commander-in-Thief, er, Chief, to argue that he did not have to defend himself against a civil suit for sexual harassment while in office.

This is particularly offensive if one considers the wars in which Democratic presidents have sent American men – husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers – to their deaths: World War One (Woodrow Wilson), World War Two (F.D.R.), Korea (Harry Truman), Kennedy and Johnson (Vietnam). There’s gratitude for you.

More recently, Clinton has used the military as an instrument of his never-ending public relations battle, dropping bombs when the Lewinsky investigation hit the news, to name just one instance.

One is compelled by logic and the public actions of the Democrats to wonder if they were not counting on Article 88 in their decision to systematically throw out military absentee ballots in Florida.

In their defense, perhaps the Democrats were only trying to steal an election like thugs, and now they are receiving the benefit of Article 88 in getting away with it.

I doubt it. A military which has been twisted from an instrument of national defense into a heavily armed social work agency now finds its hard-working, underpaid members being deprived of their rights “guaranteed” by the Constitution. (Note to Americans: the “guarantee” is only as good as the scumbags you send to Washington.) If the Democrats are devious enough to throw out military votes on phony technicalities – such as alleging that absentee ballots from the Middle East, a combat zone, require postmarks (which they do not) – they are certainly devious enough (and cowardly) to carry this out with the knowledge that their victims cannot fight back.

But in that respect, the Democrats are wrong. The military has already fought back against brainless social engineering – by voting (but with its feet instead of ballots). The armed forces are now struggling to keep talented young Americans in uniform. This latest abuse of the men and women of the military can – and should – only hasten the brain drain. So long as Americans tolerate the garbage dished out by the Democrats, the Democrats will continue to dish out garbage.

December 2, 2000

Mr. Dieteman is an attorney in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a PhD candidate in philosophy at The Catholic University of America.