Authoritarian Talk - Hang the General

I consider myself a pacifist for the most part, at least, when it comes to talk of the military and military might and all of that. Whether or not I would shoot someone to defend myself or someone I love, I don't know, but I don't think I would pick up a weapon to defend my country at the behest of a bunch of old rich guys. They just want to use up resources (young people) so they can retain or gain more power.

That said, I also understand the need for a military in today's world, and the need for nations to be able to defend themselves and their borders. And I can appreciate the desire to serve, to defend, to be a soldier, even if I myself could not be one. I have thanked soldiers, thanked my elders, thanked those who have served. My grandfather, father, and several uncles all served in the armed forces. I am not immune to it, or to the allure of patriotism. I like the United States of America. I am her citizen. I have always done my best to be a good citizen and to do right by my country and her people.

I know too that everything is not always as it seems. I'm just a normal person reading the news and I know only what somebody wants me to know. I'm not stupid. I know I don't know everything.

This morning, my guts roiled when I read what the former guy and an Arizona Senator said about out-going General Mark Milley, who has served, as best as I can tell, admirably in the face of an irrational 45th president as well as during what I considered to be unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Sorry, but I have always thought we should have hunted down Bin Laden and done away with him and left those other poor countries alone, if we had to take action.)

For one thing, Milley is a human being, and people in power should not talk about people the way the former guy and the senator have talked about Milley over the weekend. It's one thing for the man on the street to say such things. But it's another for "an influencer" to do that. In polite society, you don't call people names, you don't call them treasonous, and you don't call for them to die.

That's especially true if you're someone with power, like a former U.S. president or a senator.

You just don't do that in a sane, civilized society. Which, apparently, we are not.

So, my initial defense is of Milley as a human being who should not be subjected to hatred and foul words on a social platform that is followed by millions of crazy people who may take those hate-filled words to heart and go after the man.

My second reaction is, WTH? This is a decorated military man who has done nothing wrong other uphold the ideals of the United States Constitution, the document he swore to uphold.

That's more than I can say for the former guy and the 33% of his followers, who all apparently want to, as Kevin McCarthy stated recently, "burn down the government."

Milley is well aware that he is the line of fire. "The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg spoke at length with Milley, and his latest report included this memorable paragraph: “Milley has told friends that he expects that if Trump returns to the White House, the newly elected president will come after him. ‘He’ll start throwing people in jail, and I’d be on the top of the list,’ he has said.”" 

That anyone in this country should fear retribution from a sitting U.S. president, or a potential U.S. presidential candidate, is just . . . sickening. We don't do that here.

Or at least, I didn't think we did.

I am not going to repeat the exact words of either the former guy or the senator. You can read more about it here and here, if you want.

Honestly, though, this kind of rhetoric should upset anyone, and those who love the military for whatever reason, especially should be shocked at this kind of language coming from people in power. It's terribly alarming.

Personally, I hope General Milley sues them both for libel or slander or whatever he can come up with. The man shouldn't be tarnished simply because we have an electorate that seems to want the nation to be run by a bunch of ignorant warmongering jackasses.