|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Signing letters is a favorite sport in D.C. and the media is currently hyping the letter signed by Clinton, Obama and Biden’s secretaries of defense (and Trump’s ex, Mattis) arguing that the Commander in Chief can’t fire top military leaders.
I’m not sure which is stranger here, that someone dragged out 98-year-old (possibly 97-year-old) William Perry, who served in both WWII and the Clinton administration before turning into a full-time arms control crank or that there were five former secretaries of defense willing to go on the record with such a ridiculous claim.
The president absolutely has the power to remove and replace military leaders. He’s the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Two of the men here, Panetta and Hagel, were secretaries of defense under Obama. (Obama ousted Hagel because he wouldn’t help him free as many Al Qaeda terrorists from Gitmo as Hussein wanted.)
Obama was so hostile to the military that he became notorious for purging it. Around 200 officers were purged, including two nuclear commanders in a single week, the head of Africom along with nine senior commanding generals. McChrystal was fired for a derogatory comment about Obama.
Where were Hagel and Panetta then? Panetta was later critical of Obama, but that doesn’t count.
The fact of the matter is presidents have the right to dismiss military leaders. You may have heard of a guy called Lincoln who had to do that a few times.
What about Truman’s firing of Douglas MacArthur? Is he exercised about that? Or Lincoln’s firing of McClellan? Or is he only bothered when Trump fires a general?
Excellent examples.
“Mad Dog” Mattis is one of my biggest disappointments.
He once apologized for something he shouldn’t have.
He said the obvious truth that killing jihadist, woman-beaters is fun.
Liberals cried.
He bent the knee.
Now he’s bitching because he himself was fired – and for the 2nd time.
1st time was due to Jug-eared Barry purging the military of anyone serious & replacing them with compliant fools.
2nd time he was fired was because his vision didn’t line up with an actual Commander-in-Chief.
Trump makes decisions and backs them up (Sleepy only did that once when he demanded a reckless abandonment of Afghanistan for a 20th anniversary photo-op.)
Now Mattis chose to embarrass himself once again. It’s deflating, considering his past accomplishments in the field.
Jug ears is also jughead.
I’m exercised about Truman’s historical firing of MacArthur but I’m not a Dirtbagocrat hypocrite.
McChrystal was fired for somebody else saying “vice-president bite-me” if I remember correctly.
If the head honcho of the Govt can’t fire a General, who can?
It has to be that way otherwise you end up like a couple of shitholes around the world where the Generals are the head honchos.
Yes, they are Generals, and not kings.
That’s exactly why the framers put the civilian Chief Executive of the government in charge of the armed forces. The hypocrisy of the D-Bags is nauseating.
In Israel the AG is doing the same thing, saying Netanyahu can’t fire the intelligence chief without her permission.
There’s a reason Pete Hegseth is Secretary of Defense now and America was a punching bag for foreign weaklings when Trump wasn’t President.
Whatever inconsequential letter the Minitrue Media are hyping might as well have been signed by 51 “intelligence experts or some D-Bags who were guests of Jeffy Epstein’s Pedophile Island.
Reminds me of the Fall of the Roman Empire which I’m currently reading about. A significant percentage of the population became too weak or decadent to fight off the barbarian invaders, who could have been stopped.
Yes, I remember reading about that and Victor Davis Hanson lecturing about it. Young Romans didn’t want to fight for their “country” anymore. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And using those Germanic tribesmen and other barbarians to fill empty spaces in the Legionnaire ranks didn’t always work out so well, did it? They weren’t absolutely traitorous like moslems in the US military but not always loyal.
Hey, if you haven’t watched Victor Davis Hanson’s “The Odyssey of Western Civilization,” you should. It’s only eight episodes of half an hour or less each but it packs a lot of info into each episode. You could watch it all in two or three days without having to become a couch jockey.
Which book are you reading now?
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.
Hanson is great. A friend at chess club first recommended him to me some decades ago. Rock solid.
Reading Cicero has always been haunting to me, too many parallels to today.
These sick leftovers from the dark ages are traitors.
They should be treated as ideological lepers. I could see Perished Perry shambling to his door if somebody outside yelled “bring out your dead!” Bloodless Biden, too.
Well let’s see.
Truman fired Macarthur for how he wanted to fight the Korean war. Mac actually wanted to win.
Lincoln went through a raft of ‘do nothing’ Union Generals for not wanting to fight the Civil War, most notably McClellan. He finally ended up with Grant and Sherman. It seems that McClellan was excellent at being a good quartermaster.
Eisenhower received a ton of flack because Patton actually slapped a soldier. Every “nobody Congressman and Senator” wanted him fired. Eisenhower pretended to fire him by running a con on the Germans. Patton was stationed near Pas de Calais with an imaginary Army, so the Germans thought the invasion would be there instead of Normandy.
So I think Trump, as Commander in Chief, can fire who he wants
What struck me about McClellan was that he consistently overestimated the amount of troops Lee had (like doubling the number), a good example of an intelligence failure.
I also think he wanted the troops to look good. I call it “pretty soldier syndrome.” God forbid they get those uniforms dirty.
Who’s all in for midnight marching on the Plain?
“Intelligence failure.” That reminds me of all President Trump’s critics and backbiters.
Quartermaster McClellan? Wasn’t that the Union Army’s equivalent of a Cabin Boy in the old British Navy? “Oh Cabin Boy. Present your buttocks for deep inspection at once.”
There’s no fool like an old fool. Perhaps someone should ask those old fools to point out where in the US Constitution is says that the president can’t fire a general.
Article 2, Section 2 of the US Constitution begins with: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States….”
Perhaps they should actually read — title 10, U.S.C. 531 – Original appointments of commissioned officers.
I’m sure they have but once a D-Bag liar, always a D-Bag liar in most cases.
General officers are commissioned with Congressional and Presidential approval. Commissions that can be revoked by the Commander-in-Chief aka the President. Period.
I once saw a USAF officer/pilot get fired and decommissioned because he claimed 50 cents on his travel voucher, ostensibly to call HQ, which is fine, but they found out he lied and actually called his family. Every military officer knows he “serves at the pleasure of the President,” and can be decommissioned at any time for any reason, or no reason at all.
During Obama’s interregnum a lot of officers were RIFd when they tried to change specialities, at least within the Navy. They’d put in the paperwork, get assigned a make work job and if they didn’t take the hint, they got whacked after a year or two. This happened to one of my kids.
Old Bilderberger, Perry, will the simpletons never fade away?!?!
Old soldiers do but not old D-Bags.
I take exception to your claim Intrepid that MacArthur tactually wanted to win the Korean war. I can’t even refer to him as brilliant like so many do as a military strategist. Sure there are times were he guesses right like Inchon, that the NK won’t be expecting anyone to land there and it works out, but he continually let hubris and his God complex define him. In Korea it made him the biggest problem more than once.
I mean the guy gets to the Yalu which was easily defensible considering the terrain on both sides and Doug decides he doesn’t need to secure it because he knows the oriental mind and the Chinese will not mount an offensive. Incredibly stupid and it was on a long list. He also was not worried about infiltration and loyalties on the Korean side of the Yalu. There was never any reason for North Korea. other than Douggie’s boners.
His huge contribution in life was how he ruled Japan post war and his writing of their constitution.
The insults and questioning of Truman’s authority were something no President should tolerate. In a way he was pushing his own constitutional crises.
Um……..MacArthur ?
Is it just now that this man forgot what the position of “Commander In Chief” entails? I can forgive him
if his mind has been sullied but I can’t forgive him if he took up the cause of the wretched leftist plants.
Remember the piss poor performance of military operations under Slick Willy?
The clusterf*ck in Somalia?
The failure to take out Bin Laden when presented with his head on a platter?
Perry was the one in uniform either making recommendations or squirming up to Clinton.
So he’s really worth listening to, just so you can do the opposite.
Pardon the cliche,
but if these guys are against it
we’re for it.
Remember,
the Deep State has involved us (directly) in about 70 armed conflicts since WW2.
And I wouldn’t mind if the result was peace and prosperity for all
But they have not won any of those conflicts – neglecting Grenada, maybe Desert Storm, and the so-called Cold War.
In fact, they set the world on fire. We’ve seen an absolute dumpster fire for 80 years.
And trillions of dollars set on fire.
And G-d knows how many lives have been destroyed – just in the wars – never mind the drug cartels, the arms deals, the Muslim terrorism and Islamization, and on and on and on and on
These idiots represent the Deep State that has managed to achieve a perfect record
of being wrong, wicked, or worthless 100% of the time.
Literally the only ‘positive’ they have achieved
is a ‘positive’ HIV/AIDS test in every 3rd world brothel community where wealthy sex perverts exploit the teenagers and children.
I’d better stop before I get too spicy.
Just because Perry’s name was on the letter doesn’t mean he is able to read or comprehend it at his age.