Cutting Edge Computing

Not Cut and Dried September 18, 2021

Not at all on topic for me, but sometimes you just have something to say.

I’ve been reading about how Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley took it upon himself to inset himself into the nuclear chain of command during the last weeks of the Trump presidency.  Many seem aghast that a military officer would potentially usurp the powers which are the primary (though for various reasons not sole) prerogative of the President.

Many years ago, when I was reading the Tom Clancy novels, longtime Clancy protagonist Jack Ryan served briefly as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in The Sum of All Fears.  A suitcase nuclear weapon had been detonated in the US, and the President demanded retaliation.  In a Cabinet meeting, Ryan was the only one with the authority to verify that order, and refused.  “Give me a name or an organization that is responsible, and I will take them out,” he said (approximately).  “But I will not kill a hundred million people because you’re upset.”  Now, this was fiction, and Ryan was a civilian at the time, but had been a Marine officer earlier in his career, and had to be well aware of the consequences of his refusal.

I have been a military officer, albeit not a very good one.  Yet any thoughtful military member spends some time thinking about their response if they receive an illegal order from a superior.  Granted, whether or not any given order is illegal is highly ambiguous, and refusing an order that is later deemed legal is a criminal offense (in wartime, a summary offense).  It is up to us as individuals to determine whether we can carry out such an order, and there is no answer that doesn’t have the strong potential to make us criminals.  Thanks to Nazi Germany, “I was just following orders” is not a defense.

Now, I don’t know General Milley or his state of mind at all, and I was deeply disturbed at his striding in camo mufti alongside Trump on June 1, 2020 as the police and National Guard gassed peaceful protesters so Trump could have a photo op at Lafayette Square.  His doing so provided tacit but clear support of any military intervention in a peaceful protest.  It’s not at all clear to me that Milley has since atoned for that unconscionable act, and I don’t know his motivations in making himself a part of the nuclear chain of command, if in fact that’s the way it happened.

And I am a strong believer in the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the ability of leadership to use military forces in domestic law enforcement.  In fact, I would take it a step further and absolutely prohibit the use of the military in such actions.  I offer two reasons.  First, military members are highly trained in warfighting, not law enforcement, and will likely make serious mistakes if used in that capacity (see the Kent State Massacre).  Second, we have seen too many situations around the world where national leaders have called out their own military to suppress their citizens.  It is a bad look, and it never ends well.

I will say two things regarding General Milley, however.  First, in the military the higher your rank, the more your decisions have consequences.  Second, there is no correct answer, and however he may have acted, he could have found himself in serious trouble.

So assuming that this tale is true, I do approve of his decision.  No one wants war less than the military, who are the ones putting their lives on the line (certainly not the politicians).  The fact that war is occasionally necessary is an unfortunate byproduct of the many different motivations of people around the world.  The US nuclear arsenal is supposed to be a deterrent against nuclear attack by other aggressors (well, that’s somewhat ambiguous too), rather than a deadly cudgel to be used at the whim of a single person.  There should always be someone in the chain of command with second thoughts.