Several soldiers in the U.S. Army are accused of plotting attacks on other soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia, plotting to violently overthrow the government of the United States, and then murdering a 19-year-old fellow soldier and his 17-year-old girlfriend because they were “loose ends” after the 19-year-old decided to leave the group and the Army.  This isn’t a case of a bunch of loudmouths getting drunk and shooting off their mouth after a frustrating day at the motor pool.  This is actual planning of terrorism against the county they pledged to defend and then murdering two people who they feared would report them.  In a just world, any of these offenses, if proven in a court-martial, would lead to the offenders dancing a jig in midair.

First, let’s start with the easy one: murder. There are precisely two reasons for a soldier to take a human life:  Either as part of his legal mission, or to protect himself and others from unlawful violence.  Both of these are rare.  In this respect, these pieces of garbage are no better than the MS-13 scumbag who has his ex-girlfriend carved up so that she doesn’t report him to the law, and should be treated accordingly.  The fact that they did this to a fellow soldier and his young girlfriend only aggravates the situation.  Those who planned this atrocity, carried it out, or either witnessed it or knew about it and did nothing deserve not only severe punishment, but the infamy that comes with it.

As for the other charges, that they planned to kill their leadership at Fort Stewart, lead a mutiny against the government, and kill members of the civilian leadership are, if possible, even more disgusting.  The sanctity of civilian leadership over the military was established by George Washington during the Newburgh incident in 1783, in which a group of officers in the Continental Army plotted to stage a coup against Congress, and possibly ensconce Washington or one of his subordinate generals as ruler of our infant nation, but were persuaded to let it go by General Washington.  Put simply, it should be anathema for soldiers to consider overthrowing their civilian leaders, just as it should be impossible for a child to consider murdering his parents.  Soldiers are not expected to agree with the government, or even like it, but they are expected to follow their legal orders, no matter what, and that includes paying respect to the principle of civilian control of the military.

As an example, I served through the Clinton administration.  Years of cost cutting, coupled with increased operational tempo running ourselves ragged tending to whatever weeping sore the world developed, wore a lot of us very thin.  To say that President Clinton was unpopular with the military would be a gross understatement.  One of the guys I served with, who was my peer in rank, was from Arkansas, and had a personal animus against the Clintons.  Off duty and away from junior soldiers, he wasn’t shy about expressing his hope that the president would end his days as deputy assistant director in charge of unclogging stuck drains at a feed lot.  But he never breathed a word of it on duty, and heaven help you if you were a soldier that bad mouthed the President or any other part of the government within earshot of him.  In his opinion, and it’s an opinion I share, soldiers do not get to  be political while on duty, and a soldier who disrespects his leadership is a very dangerous thing.

The accused at Fort Stewart failed to figure out how this all works.  If you disagree with the government while you are in uniform, you either learn to live with it and make sure your orders pass the legality sniff test, or you get out and become politically active.  If you do this, you have the ability to change the course of the Republic without endangering it.

If these dingbats are convicted, I hope they swing high in front of their unit.  Apparently the FBI hasn’t been able to figure out if there might be more of their ilk in their units, so maybe seeing the ones we can find twisting in the wind will convince them to walk away from their plans to betray their oath to the country.