Should Donald Trump happen to be successful in his race for the White House in 2016, he may well find the Pentagon bereft of top commanders when he takes the oath of office on Inauguration Day.
Several top Pentagon commanders are saying they will indeed resign in protest if Trump should become Commander-in-Chief. One remarked:
“By 2016 I will have my 20 years in and can get out of here. This is not the country I joined to defend. I am turning in my papers. I’m moving to a farm.”
Rear Admiral John Hutson echoed that sentiment:
“Personally, I hope no one will be called upon to serve under a President T… I can’t bring myself to type the words.”
Trump has made extremely militaristic (not to mention unsound) remarks about how he would use the armed forces as President. His comments on barring Muslim immigrants from the United States has also caused across the board denunciations from Republicans such as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and fellow GOP Presidential contenders Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Rand Paul.
Another member of the senior brass at the Pentagon had this to say about Trump’s hawkish ramblings on how he would solve problems such as ISIS and instability in the Middle East:
“And there are fears of being asked to carry out futile war plans that would bring instability. Almost all of today’s commanders are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all know someone who died in combat; indeed, they may have sent someone on a mission that ended with death. And because of that they bring a unique vantage point to lessons learned, from the frontlines where the cruelty of warfare is impossible to miss. Those who send them, meanwhile, sit thousands of miles away and learn what is happening through the filter of distance.”
This exercise in reality TV mixed with the highest office in the United States has gone on for long enough. When even the highest military officials say they want no part of a Trump Administration, it’s time for all–Democrats, Republicans, and Independents–to demand that Trump not be allowed on any ballot come Election Day 2016.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.