Major Hat to CDR Salamander.
This is not the position of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to engage with a civilian INCONUS.Marines are indoctrinated to follow orders.
Full stop.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with Pastor Terry Jones by phone on Wednesday and asked him to withdraw his support for a film whose portrayal of the Prophet Mohammad has sparked violent protests - including one that ended with the death of America's envoy to Libya. "In the brief call, Gen. Dempsey expressed his concerns over the nature of the film, the tensions it will inflame and the violence it will cause," Dempsey's spokesman, Colonel Dave Lapan, told Reuters.Do we really want active duty officers to encourage citizens to surrender or withdraw their Constitutional rights because foreign nationals (who are our enemy) don't like them?
Is that in the spirit of "... support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic?"
I have no use for Terry Jones - but having an Army General, in his official capacity, in uniform, pressuring a tax payer to surrender Constitutional rights, is not a nation I think I live in.
General Dempsey, General Casey (5-min mark) needs a bowling partner, give him a call.
Immediately.
Without hesitation.
Mission accomplishment.
But its time to sit back and take a serious look at the people sitting in the big chairs of Joint Chiefs of Staff.
We're seeing the worst military leadership of the past 100 years. These guys have no moral compass, no backbone and definitely no military bearing. Unfortunately that also flows to their Senior Enlisted advisers.
How a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would find it within his realm of responsibility to CALL a private citizen and tell him to stop an activity that is PROTECTED by the constitution is beyond me, but if it isn't a crime it should be. If it was an ORDER then it was an ILLEGAL order.
The US Military can't win wars at this time because leadership is so screwed up.
