Soldiers Will Obey Trump’s Unconstitutional Orders
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Yesterday the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed entitled “What Will the Military Do If Trump Gives Unconstitutional Orders?” The article was written by a West Point graduate named ML Cavanaugh, who recently retired from the military. He is the co-founder of an organization named the War Institute at West Point.
In his article, Cavanaugh reminds of the old saw that every U.S. soldier takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution. He asks: “Given Donald Trump’s threats to use the military against his own enemies, some wonder with dread: What will the military do if the president gives unconstitutional orders? While nobody would ever want such a challenge, I am fully confident that Americans in uniform will honor the highest duty we swore, which is to the Constitution.”
Cavanaugh is wrong. In a crisis, every U.S. soldier will obey the orders of his commander-in-chief, even if unconstitutional. That’s because in a crisis, no soldier is going to be taking any time to examine whether the orders he is issued are constitutional or not. Every soldier will take the position that it is not his responsibility to determine whether an order is constitutional or not. After all, in his mind he is a soldier, not a lawyer. Equally important, when a soldier obeys the president’s orders, in his mind he is supporting and defending the Constitution. That’s because the president has been duly elected under the Constitution. Thus, whether Cavanaugh wants to admit it or not, despite the oath he takes the soldier’s loyalty is actually to the president, not the Constitution.
The best proof of this phenomena is Cavanaugh himself. In the first sentence of his biography on his personal website, he states, with obvious pride, that he “earned two Bronze Star Medals and a Combat Action Badge for his time in the Iraq War.”
The Iraq War? Isn’t that the war that was waged without the congressional declaration of war required by the Constitution? Every soldier knows — or should know — that the Constitution
Article from The Future of Freedom Foundation
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