Former Pentagon Leaders Warn of a Dangerous Era – By Helene Cooper (The New York Times) / Sept 7, 2022
WASHINGTON — The challenge to a peaceful transfer of power after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election has worsened “an extremely adverse environment” for the U.S. military, according to an open letter signed by several top generals and former defense secretaries.
The letter does not mention Trump by name. But in 16 points on the principles that are supposed to define civil-military relations, the signatories issued a thinly veiled indictment of Trump and the legions of his followers who called on the military to support his false claim that the election was stolen from him.
“Military officers swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not an oath of fealty to an individual or to an office,” the bipartisan group wrote, adding later, “It is the responsibility of senior military and civilian leaders to ensure that any order they receive from the president is legal.”
Two former defense secretaries who served under Trump, Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, were among those who signed the letter, which was published Tuesday on War on the Rocks, an online platform for analysis of national security and foreign affairs issues.
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