To the editor:
“We know you are under enormous pressure,” six members of Congress said in a video released Nov. 19, but “your vigilance is critical and know that we have your back.” These former members of the armed services and intelligence community urged their now-serving counterparts to disobey unlawful orders. That is as it should be.
Trump and too many others, however, say the video is sedition and calls for disobeying all orders. False. It is not sedition to urge disobedience to illegal orders only – the only sort the video referred to. What the members of Congress urged should not be controversial.
But it is. Vehement critics say Trump has issued no unlawful orders, so the warning has some ulterior motive. Wrong.
Courts ruled illegal two National Guard deployments. The Southern Command’s top lawyer raised compelling doubts about legality of attacking boats in the Caribbean and no one at the Pentagon overruled him. In 2020, Trump asked the secretary of Defense whether protesters could be shot in the legs. Seven hundred combat-ready troops were stationed within a two-hour march of the Capitol. With bayonets. This year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brutality happens frequently and with too little concern about curbing it. In October, Trump said “we’re closer than ever” to invoking the Insurrection Act. That allows him to deploy the military domestically, a power he could easily abuse. Against this backdrop, who can say there will be no unlawful orders?
Hence the need to remind people of their duty to disobey illegal orders and to have their backs.
Critics also claim the video sows doubt and discord, which affect morale, cohesion and willingness to follow lawful orders. How could people obey if they wonder whether they’ve been ordered to act illegally?
The video causes no new doubt and discord about legalities. Those are already with us. They’re part of the pressure the members of Congress mentioned in their video. Rather, the video just stiffens spines for doing what ought to be done.
That’s good leadership. Leading is what members of Congress are elected to do. It’s their duty.
Ewen Allison
Castle Hill
