As shamefully awful as it was, it could have been worse. When the news reported that hundreds of high-ranking officers of the American military, including generals and admirals currently stationed around the world, were suddenly summoned to Washington for...whatever, and this was happening the day before the government shutdown that the White House was doing everything it could to make happen, ominous alarms went off in many anxious minds.
Some were reminded of the Nazi gathering of its military leaders to pledge loyalty not to Germany but to Hitler personally. After all, the full dictatorship needs only a declaration of martial law, dissolving Congress and canceling elections on the pretext of some emergency--for example, a government shutdown.
At least that didn't happen. Instead the top brass were packed together like olive drab sardines (with a sprinkling of Navy blue) to hear a couple of speeches, one more absurd than the last. Chaos rambled and ranted, another shameful performance that inflamed commentators to conclude he is mentally unfit for the office, again. This after what was described as a kind of bizarre TED talk by the fall-down drunk currently supervising the armed forces, summarizing the talking points of his last year's book, setting slightly new standards for physical fitness and calling for more concentration on "lethality."
Throughout these hours, the Generals and Admirals were silent--with maybe a few chuckles at the beginning of Chaos remarks, the first of his weird singsong Borscht Belt comedian imitations--a silence that unnerved him. Later, the New York Times reporter on site could not find one who said they heard a good presentation.
Their silence spoke loudly. But many wondered what was going on in the minds behind those faces frozen in poses of seeming affectless attention. Lawrence O'Donnell suggested one thought was probably, "If I'm ordered to send my missiles, how will I know the person ordering me is sane?" O"Donnell's answer is "you don't."
But the speech itself told them that this is not a commander in chief who has serious thoughts about the world, but a commander who asserts that which manifestly is not factual let alone true. A commander who suggests military training include occupying US cities, itself contrary to the law they are sworn to uphold. But then, the whole political content of the speech was unlawful, so why split hairs?
As the Secretary pranced and postured, and Chaos droned on, the Generals and Admirals had plenty of time to think about the strategic implications of what this administration has done, apart from the dangerous and unsettling nonsense they say. Years ago the Pentagon concluded that the greatest long-term threat to national security is the climate crisis, and that is not only going unaddressed, but to even admit its reality is forbidden.
They know that apart from blunt force actions imposed on vastly inferior opponents, like sending powerful warplanes to blow up little boatloads of unknown people on the high seas without warning, the next major war, if there is one (since people like them know it is also likely to be the last major war) will depend on sophisticated electronic systems, for which prowess in pushups will be irrelevant.
And so they observe that the carefully constructed infrastructure for science and research is being dismantled, the universities where necessary education and innovation takes place are under attack, and the best minds attracted from abroad to American universities and companies are being blocked, demonized and threatened. Tariffs are also hobbling advances in high tech, especially in areas where China is seeking advantage, and presumably can't believe its luck. There is no sense of the national interest in this administration--just warped ideology and corrupt deals to make certain wealthy people wealthier.
Universities are targeted for their foreign students, who come often with better preparation, better motivation, and not incidentally, they generally pay full freight (which enables those universities to offer scholarships to Americans.) It is true that many universities (as well as private preparatory schools) depend on a lot of foreign students, but if any remedy is required, the most sensible one is to improve American elementary and secondary schools, which have been deteriorating for decades. Probably most Generals and Admirals would agree.
They may also reflect that the successes of American military efforts in an interdependent world have often involved supporting diplomacy, and undertaking peacekeeping and rescue missions. Now the paranoid man from Fox News lectures them on lethality, which is another way of saying you are killers, and that's all you need to do or know, us smart people in suits will do the thinking, which will mostly involve giving you orders to kill. After all, our top diplomats know nothing about diplomacy, and care less.
These Generals and Admirals, whatever their roles and responsibilities, must require a flow of dependable information, which chaos and warped priorities in this federal government that clearly does not value accurate information, that in fact punishes and fires those who insist on it, threaten to slow and to stop.
As for this new mission of patrolling and applying force (and presumably "lethality") in American cities, if they are posted in the US or have stuck around after this drab day long enough to observe things, they might have noticed that the American people are by and large against this role, and that where it is attempted, that opposition is in the streets. Evaluating the facts on the ground is part of what those Generals and Admirals necessarily must do, while their political overlords can choose to believe their anti-factual rhetoric, or pretend to.
The silent Generals may conclude that things are getting a lot more dangerous for the United States, its people and its future, as a consequence of this Chaos. But you don't have to be a General or an Admiral to feel this, to sense the return of certain nightmares identified with the 1950s and 60s when nuclear Armageddon could destroy the foundations of your life forever in a week, a day, an hour, a minute. We aren't used to those nightmares--we've got new ones. But they are poised to make a comeback, perhaps even within the silence of the Generals.
