Veteran here. If it's any consolation, basic training included a fairly lengthy course (well... relative to the other shit they teach there at least) about how to identify and what to do when given unlawful orders. Lots of emphasis on DO NOT FUCKING FOLLOW THEM. Lots of emphasis on the Nuremberg trials / if your defense is "just followed orders..." then you're fucked. They talked about people like Hugh Thompson Jr. and the severe back pain he sustained from lugging around those massive balls.
The military does NOT want to become Nazis or stormtroopers. If Trump plays the whole 'execute order 66' card, military leadership will tell him to suck a dick.
It's the cops I'm worried about. And the neonazi civilians responding to Trump's stochastic terrorism.
What if I told you, there are PLENTY of soldiers in every branch ready and waiting to betray any oath for daddy trump. They went through the same classes you did and just nodded along to get through it. Now they're trained, and ready to fill the void when Trump fires or demotes anyone who refuses his orders.
That would require massive and obvious reorganizations of the military. It would also effectively hollow out the officer corps with so many of them refusing an illegal reorganization. (The organization at the high levels is set by law)
It's far more likely Trump will take volunteer veterans into the DOJ, give them a badge, and run it like a military unit with all of the equipment and none of the accountability. It's easier, faster, and legal.
Trump has the Supreme Court, the Senate, and almost certainly the House. All three will do as they are told. If the millitary refuses illegal orders, I think those orders will be made legal. Either that, or he will be allowed to replace military leadership.
It's going to take more than just replacing the leadership. Every e-nothing gets that same training; whether illegal orders are coming down from the president himself or their immediate supervisor or anyone in between, they'll be met with resistance.
Now, there are plenty of trumpanzees among the ranks who will put their loyalty to Agent Orange over their country and constitution, and do whatever he says no questions asked, just as it is with the non-military population. So, if we see an 'order 66' event, what's going to happen is a SHIT TON of in-fighting within the ranks to the point that our military readiness is going to nosedive, leaving us vulnurable to other forms of attacks, but I don't see troops actually hitting the streets like that in any organized fashion.
Again though, what I'm worried about are the cops. They're already completely loyal to that shitstain, and have a long and regular history of extreme unnecessary violence and not actually following the law. And they're already mobilized and infused into every single city in the US. Combine that with the civilian trumpanzees and we've got a very large force that have been itching for a civil war for like a decade at least.
They talked about people like Hugh Thompson Jr. and the severe back pain he sustained from lugging around those massive balls.
Did they talk about that absolutely nobody from the My Lai massacre - the example you brought up - saw any real consequences, with only one guy - who killed 22 - serving 3.5 years before Nixon got him out?
Or that the highest ranking surviving Nazi, who had a real say in German leadership during the war, was Hitler's trusted advisor and unrepentant, unwavering follower, even after the war, got off with 10 years since the US and the UK committed similar war crimes as he did, so they didn't sentence him for that?
Or the Hague invasion act and US war crimes that precipitated it? Or the US war crimes since?
I think those guys will be just fine saying "I was just following the orders of the magnificent Cheeto".
Nope! This is basic training we're talking about. They teach only the details that accomplish the lesson. And the lesson was don't follow illegal orders. If there's more to the story that contradicts the lesson, you bet your ass it was omitted.
Officers in every branch are also trained to protect their people and be transparent with leadership about their limitations. Remember Captain Crozier?
Anyone who's in long enough and is politically savvy enough to get stars, stopped caring about that stuff a long time ago.
They can force people to take the classes, but they can't force them to agree with them. I'm glad they go over this, but they should probably test people on this stuff without warning them it's a drill and see how they actually respond.
The thing is, they do...at least when I went through basic, they'd be PTing me, screaming at me, asking all sorts of questions to see if I know and understand and can perform under pressure.
Like when he orders the execution of Mark Milley? It will perhaps be one of the most significant moments in US history where we either stay the US or become Turkey.
No. Just no. That's been completely blown out of proportion. It's a reissue of a decades old memo to update intelligence sharing. It's for groups like the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Oh they'll do an impeachment, they'll impeach Obama Biden Harris 3 times just to "own the libs" then do a senate shenaigan where they call up republican senators while blocking democratic sentors from entering then they vote unanimous 51/51 and block them from eligibility of future federal office, even tho they probably wont run again.
Understand that when your goal is blocking things, you somstimes do things you know will almost certainly fail. Republicans have used this playbook for ages to block the Democratic party
Make them get tied up in as many pointless tasks to distract them from their other goals. Sometimes you'll even occasionally win a long shot challange
If everything he does, per SCOTUS, while President is legal, than what do you impeach him for? Also, you guys voted in a red House and Senate, so that's not happening on a good day.
I'm getting very tired of happy happy joy joy style and unrealistic posts. We need to talk raw reality here, people.