General Defense

If you haven't seen the epic leadership displayed by Lieutenant General Jay Silveria, the Superintendent of the US Air Force Academy, after the discovery of racist graffiti on his campus, I highly recommend you go to YouTube and watch it.  It's an exceptional speech on tolerance, acceptance, and how our diversity makes us better Americans.  Quite frankly, it's the anti-racism speech we should've had our President give after Charlottesville, but he was too busy rooting for the racists.

Generals are an interesting rank in our armed forces.  They are the true leaders of our military, remarkable and noteworthy officers who've worked their way up through the ranks to join the upper echelon of our military's leadership.  How does a Captain or Major move up through the ranks to become one of our top brass?  It's a little like (and stay with me here) the Great British Baking Show.  When you start watching the first episode with 12 bakers, six or seven look like they might be contenders, but it's when you are down to the final 4 or 5, you realize only one or two of the initial group were ever really a contender for the top prize.  Some low level officers make it to Lieutenant Colonel, or full bird Colonel, but only true leaders get to start putting stars on their shoulders.

It doesn't mean some generals aren't militarily inferior.  George McClellan was a horrific leader, probably the worst military general we ever had.  He was so bad, after his ineptitude during the Peninsula Campaign, the North had to defeat the South by coming in from the west (look at a map!).  The majority of Union Generals during the Civil War, before Grant took over, were almost as bad as McClellan, and, as Ken Burns' sobering documentary on the Vietnam War shows, William Westmoreland was a fool when it came to a blueprint for success in SouthEast Asia.  And some Generals, like David Petraeus, get drunk on their power, thinking it gives them the ability to do whatever they want without consequences.

Major military conflicts aside, almost all Generals are wise, intelligent, (most of the time) non partisan, and as Lt. Gen. Silveria showed, capable of legendary leadership when you need it most.  One of the main reasons we have our standing in the world today is the leadership of our Armed Forces.  And no, it has very little to do with the military might they have at their disposal, but rather their diplomatic skills which are the difference maker.

The military seems to be infiltrating the Trump Administration.  There are the usual military associated cabinet positions.  The Secretary of Defense is former General James Mattis, a four star Marine General who worked with both Democratic and Republican Administrations, and who required Marines to undergo cultural sensitivity training before being deployed to the Middle East.  The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is Joseph Dunford, a four star Marine General who led NATO forced in Afghanistan with success (that's a neat trick) and who President Obama appointed as the Commandant of the Marine Corps.  As a Democrat and a Veteran, those two picks are top notch for those positions.  It makes me feel Trump had no say in those two.

But since other Trump Administration members have left their positions, two others have become more prominent.  General John Kelly was running the US Southern Command when Trump called upon him to be the Secretary of Homeland Security, a role he was confirmed for early in the Trump Administration.  Very quickly after Reince Priebus stepped down as White House Chief of Staff, Kelly assumed that role, and has been preforming a purge of unqualified buffoons who've been littering the White House ever since.  He canned Anthony Scaramucci as Communications Director immediately upon assuming the Chief of Staff position, got rid of Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, the racist ideologues who were driving Trump further down a white supremacy path, and Kelly's now working on removing the self serving Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law, from his powerful position, a position Kushner is clearly using to promote his family's personal finances über alles.

Lt. Gen. HR McMaster was Trump's hasty appointment for the role of National Secret Advisor after the disastrous short lived reign of Russian ally Michael Flynn.  Flynn and Bannon had loaded the National Security Council with racists and anti-Muslim zealots, a group of people McMaster was determined to remove.  He quickly fired several of the questionable members, leading to a stand off, with Bannon going on a full smear campaign against him, sometimes featuring anti-semitic attacks.  Trump backed McMaster publicly, reaffirming his confidence in him.

It's been interesting watching these Generals in their Administration roles.  This is purely speculative, but I feel as if these four Generals are viewing their military rank in a new application:  they're tasking themselves with saving the country from Trump, by acting as a last line of defense.

My theory is this harks back to the botched Yemen raid.  In Trump's first week in office, Trump, Kushner, Bannon and Mattis met to discuss launching what would be a failed raid of an al-Qaida base in Yemen, a raid most in the military were warning against, stating recon of the area was incomplete.  Trump, wanting a quick military victory, ordered 'Go.'  We lost one Navy seal, countless Yemenis were killed, and the objective was not eliminated.  By all accounts, the military had to send in heavily armed helicopters into a civilian area, shooting anything that moved, just to get our troops out of there.  It was a massive failure.  The Trump Administration initially tried to bury the raid, but then, when news of the failure leaked out, blamed the military for his decision.

I'm not sure what Mattis' role was in green lighting Yemen.  He might've been a good soldier and just went along.  He could've been protesting, drown out by Bannon and Kushner.  He could've sat silently and observed.  Regardless, the failure of that raid sent shockwaves through the military.  It was the sobering realization someone who's completely void of military knowledge, with zero respect of military assessment, with an itchy trigger finger and a massive inferiority complex could order the US military into combat, jeopardizing thousands of military personnel, billions in tax payers dollars, and our standing internationally.

After that, I think Mattis, Dunford, Kelly and McMaster realized the Trump Administration could break the military and this country.  They needed to purge the negative opportunists from the White House, and they've been cleaning up Trump's messes ever since.  They tolerate the unqualified blunders of Trump, in an effort hold the United States together.  They've even outright refused to follow Trump orders, telling transgender troops they have nothing to fear as long as they have a say.  And to their credit, they are having a say.   They can't stop Trump from grabbing his phone and heading into the golf course bathroom to rail against something foolish, nor can they stop the crap stream coming out of his mouth when he is off script, but they are sure doing what they need to behind the scenes to hold this country together, even seeming to have recruited Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who's diplomacy has taken a far more congenial tact in the last few months.

This doesn't necessarily excuse their political actions while in these positions.  They should bear the brunt of their decisions, but their outright refusal to follow through on Trump's transgender military ban tells you where their borders are.  They will allow moronic speeches and useless manhood measuring contests, but they won't be on board with real damaging policies.  And before anyone fears a military takeover of this country, I don't think that's the end game of these military leaders.  Far from it!  They have a sweet gig within the US Military, and they know destabilizing the countries governmental foundation would jeopardize that.  These are people who serve to protect ALL Americans, and they seem to understand their roll has changed with Trump in the White House.

At the end of all of this, those four are going to deserve a medal.  We'll make a new one:  for meritorious service in a time of self induced combat. We'll make the ribbon orange.

There's a neat trick military guys learn to remember the names of a one, two, three or four star General.  "Be My Little General":  Be = Brigadier General (one star), My = Major General (two stars), Little = Lieutenant General (three stars), General = General (four stars).  Little did I know that I would be saying that phrase, 'be my little general' to four men who might be what saves the United States from Donald Trump.