A Veteran’s Lament

Where are the leaders who know better and can speak truth to power?

As someone who grew up in a military family and served in the U.S. Air Force, the events of the past few days have been unexpectedly personal for me. When you’ve worn the uniform of your country’s armed forces, you become part of a community with shared experiences and a common bond that allows a quick and easy connection when you come across someone else who is serving or has served. Recent polls show that, even as trust in our institutions has eroded, the U.S. military still ranks higher than law enforcement, the presidency, the Supreme Court, Congress, and even the clergy. Only small businesses, medical professionals, and scientists rank higher than our armed forces.

The respect in our culture for the U.S. armed forces seems to transcend the conflicts in which they’ve been engaged, such as Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, which hasn’t always been the case. The U.S. military was deeply unpopular during and after the Vietnam War, and the deference shown to veterans today was elusive for people like my father who served during that time. I imagine he would have appreciated the veterans’ discounts and the refrain of “Thank you for your service” that is so common today.

That is what makes the Trump administration’s misuse of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles so distressing. We were trained and repeatedly reminded that our purpose was to defend the freedoms of all Americans, not just those who shared our beliefs. It was in the U.S. Air Force where I learned the maxim, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Our oath was to the Constitution of the United States, not to a megalomaniacal chief executive who has created an "enemy" by demonizing the portion of America that does not align with him, effectively declaring war on them.

While he unnecessarily escalated the situation in L.A., he held a political rally at Fort Bragg where he used soldiers as props for his usual jeremiad against everyone he hates, and goaded them into cheering for him and booing his enemies, who are Americans they are sworn to defend. Active-duty military members are prohibited from attending political rallies or acting disrespectfully toward American elected officials, regardless of their party affiliation. However, Trump, who questions why anyone would lay down their lives for their country, demands that only healthy service members adorn his events, and praises the military only if they worship him, couldn’t care less about the rules and regulations. Writer Tom Nichols said that Trump “has no compunction about turning every American soldier into a hooting partisan.”

Subsequent reports that these soldiers were selected to present a certain appearance didn’t make it any better; what happened at Fort Bragg, and what’s happening in the streets of Los Angeles, is a violation of the duty, honor, and loyalty to the nation and its creed ascribed to every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, coast guardsman, or guardian past, present, and future. Then we have the spectacle, er, “military parade,” planned for Saturday in Washington, D.C., ostensibly to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, but which plays perfectly to Trump’s cosplaying as a wartime president. The fact that it falls on his birthday and he gets to preside over it addresses a desire he has had since witnessing the Bastille Day military parade in Paris in 2017 during his first presidency. It doesn’t matter that, for all his bloviating about “fraud, waste, and abuse,” this parade will cost the American taxpayer between $25 million and $45 million, and six out of 10 Americans don’t believe it’s a good use of their tax dollars.

As I watch Trump, who dodged military service five times due to college deferments and a questionable diagnosis of bone spurs, and his exceptionally unqualified Secretary of Defense, Peter Hegseth, make a mockery of our armed forces, throwing around words like “warrior ethos” and “lethality” like they were immersed in a Call of Duty video game, I can’t help but ask myseslf where the senior officers and commanders are at this moment. The young men in today’s armed forces are particularly susceptible to Trump and Hegseth’s fever dreams of hypermasculinity, and they need leaders who understand that serving in the armed forces is not about glorifying violence and killing, but about defending life, liberty, and property so that all people have the freedom to flourish. As G. K. Chesterton said, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

Tom Nichols, who taught senior officers at the Naval War College, laid out the responsibility of military leadership in stark terms:

Trump’s supporters and his party will excuse his behavior at Fort Bragg the way they always have, the same way that indulgent parents shrug helplessly at their delinquent children. But senior officers of the United States military have an obligation to speak up and be leaders. Where is the Army chief of staff, General Randy George? Will he speak truth to the commander in chief and put a stop to the assault on the integrity of his troops? Where is the commander of the airborne troops, Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson, or even Colonel Chad Mixon, the base commander?

And if these men cannot muster the courage to defend American traditions—by speaking out or even resigning—where are the other senior officers who must uphold the values that have made America’s armed forces among the most effective and politically stable militaries in the world? Where is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine? He was personally selected by Trump to be America’s most senior military officer. Will he tell the man who promoted him that what he did today was obscene?

Over the past decade, a noticeable lack of courage has been evident in public discourse. A political party that once confidently opposed government overreach and the misuse of political power to undermine the rule of law has now surrendered to Donald Trump, motivated by opportunism or fear. If the uniformed leadership of our armed forces has given in to this virus of timidity, we may face challenging days ahead.

Homeland Defense Secretary Kristi Noem unintentionally but revealingly suggested today in Los Angeles that the National Guard and Marines were deployed to “liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.” Should Trump become frustrated with the resistance to his rule, he might seek to “liberate” other cities or the nation from “socialists and the burdensome leadership” hampering his exercise of power, and we have to hope that there are still people of integrity in command with the courage to declare to him, as the Lord declares to the sea, “This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt” (Job 38:11).