The Military Coup-Not Coup That Could Save Democracy
Military Inaction
First let me say that I do not support a military coup to remove Donald Trump from office.
Trump is a sociopathic fascist with delusions of godhead who will try to pull down our constitutional republic if he can. And I agree that he has to be stopped.
Looking at his plan to remove many top military officers and replace them with those loyal to him worries me. I think he is planning to put troops into the streets when the inevitable mass protests erupt, and he wants to be sure the Armed Forces will do his bidding.
But a coup is not the way to stop him.
I won’t go into all of the reasons why I oppose a coup, but let me point to what happened in Turkey a few years ago. A group of generals launched a coup to try to save Turkish democracy from authoritarian strong man Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The people took to the streets, Turkish troops refused to fire on them, the coup collapsed, and Erdoğan used it to purge the military, round up dissidents, and increase his powers.
That is probably what would happen in the US if the military launched a coup.
What I suggest is a Freeze the Military Leadership in Place Non-Coup.
The best way to explain what I mean is to write the speech that I would like to hear from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Our Fellow Americans.
As officers in the United States Armed Forces we have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic.
We take that oath seriously.
We love our country.
It is for that reason that we are taking the extraordinary steps that we will explain to you tonight.
Our national democracy is under threat and we are pledged to protect it.
Our fear is that an authoritarian president who seems unbound by any respect for the rule of law will utilize the Armed Forces of the United States to suppress dissent, imprison his opponents, and possibly even kill our fellow citizens in the streets.
Such a course of events would be a tragedy of gargantuan proportions and could see our beloved nation descend into Civil War.
To leave an authoritarian president in place who might use the military for his purposes and who is intent upon destroying our democracy would be be a betrayal of our oath.
However, to cast out a constitutionally elected president would also be to betray our oath to the Constitution.
Therefore we have agreed upon the following course of action.
The Command Structure of the Armed Forces of the United States shall remain in its current configuration.
All members of the Armed Forces shall remain in their barracks with the exception of specially chosen units which shall continue to carry out the regular functions assigned to them prior to the issuance of these orders.
No member of the Armed Forces will interfere with the operation of the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial Branches of the Government of the United States with the exception of the steps stated in these remarks.
No member of the Armed Forces shall interfere with any civilian officials either local, state, or federal, with exception of the steps noted below.
The Armed Forces will protect the right of all citizens to exercise the rights enumerated in the Constitution of the United States, including the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful public protest.
The Armed Forces will intervene only in the event of the interference with the exercise of such freedoms by any governmental or non governmental entities or actors.
The Armed Forces of the United States will leave it to the civilian leadership of local, state, and national government, especially the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States, to find a way forward in the troubled times.
We do not take these steps lightly. We recognize that they are extraordinary in the history of our nation. But we feel they are necessary not in order to place the United States military in the position of interfering in the Constitutionally mandated civilian control of our government, but to prevent the Armed Forces from being used to seize control of that government or to terrorize those who seek to make their voices heard peacefully in the streets.
We call on all Americans to remain calm and to think what should be the patriotic duty of every American.
Thank you, and God Bless America.