Editor,
A friend, also with military service, provided what I consider to be the best feedback I have seen regarding the current controversy regarding the six politicians who posted a video online encouraging service members not to follow illegal orders.
The loudest people online keep repeating the same hollow argument, insisting that six senators “did nothing wrong” when they told the military to ignore presidential orders. That claim only works if you’ve never served a day in uniform. The civilian population hears a phrase like “illegal order” and imagines that service members are free-range referees who get to blow a whistle whenever they feel like it. The real world does not work that way. The military chain of command is not optional and it sure isn’t open to interpretation by which-ever politician is going viral this week.
In the United States military, lawful authority moves in one direction. It starts at the top, flows down through the branches, and lands on the individual service member. What does not exist is a sideways bypass where random senators insert themselves and start issuing philosophical guidance to the troops. These six senators didn’t just talk. They implied that the military should consider their political opinion as a substitute for executive authority. That alone is a major breach of the norms that protect civilian control of the armed forces.
Every service member is trained that unlawful orders exist, but the system for identifying them is strict and well-defined. You cannot just decide on your own what “feels wrong” politically and call that illegal. There is a legal process, clear criteria, and a responsibility to report up the chain, not sideways to a senator and not down to the public in the middle of a media storm. When elected officials pretend they have the right to guide troops outside those channels, they are tampering with the structure that prevents chaos.
Senators do not give military orders, and they do not get to coach the troops on what orders to ignore. When they attempt to do so, it is not “harmless commentary.” It is interference in the chain of command and an invitation for confusion inside the ranks. The people screaming the loudest about “protecting democracy” never seem to understand how fast a democracy fractures when politicians try to weaponize the military for partisan messaging.
The chain of command exists for a reason. Break it, and you break the country.
Joe Kaffl
Hillsboro
Editor,
Luddite is a derogatory term for textile workers in the 1800s who feared the impact of technology and mechanical looms on their livelihood.
I, too, sense that fear that an inalterable shift in technology is about to occur, heralded by brilliant young minds but led by billionaires whose unfettered goals are power and money without an ounce of understanding and forward thinking; an explosion like the atomic bomb, wondrous to see until you realize the mistake. Your rake, lawn mower, and car are tools that you use to increase the reach and impact of your interactions with the world around you. AI (artificial intelligence) is not a tool like those; it will replace you instead of helping you. It will replicate you and render you nearly superfluous. In my lifetime there have been dramatic advances in science and technology that have changed the landscape of thousands of years of social structure in almost an instant. Computers, cell phones and the internet could have aligned our minds and endeavors toward a great awakening of the human spirit but have as well given rise to AI. AI can become a mechanism where our species will give over our most important and, shall I say, scared aspect of life, our ability to think and reason and make decisions based upon our empathy and native intelligence.
AI will very soon create a world where machines and computers do your thinking and direct your actions. There will be no need for you to learn and understand the wonders of science and math or to read “Moby Dick” and immerse your mind in great literature and art.
The ultimate goal of AI is that it will do everything, and you will do nothing. And the wonder and joy of learning about yourself and the meaning of your existence will go the way of the post card, dial phone, cursive writing and checkbook.
Welcome to the “Brave New World!”
Martin Saffer
Hillsboro
Editor,
In reply to Joseph Kaffl, of Hillsboro:
Castro and his band of revolutionaries fought again-st Batista’s brutal regime and gained power – despite their small numbers – through the group’s organized structure, strict discipline, hill-country headquarters and fervent ideals, as well as, eventually, the support of the general populace upon entering Havana. They weren’t “voted in.”
Cuba remains a popular Spanish tourist mecca because of the lure of its beaches, women, hotels, culture and Havana’s world heritage status.
According to an article – accompanied by photos – that I read in a Spanish magazine, when I was living in Spain, there are a plethora of organic inner-city gardens in the capital of Cuba with accompanying restaurants. Spain does not suffer from a media blackout in regard to Cuba, whose “lower living standards” are mostly the result of the long-standing U.S. embargo on Cuban goods and travel to the country.
Nonetheless, Cubans are still famed for their melodic accents, dance music and charm. The lean years have also reduced male potbellies, increased ride sharing, kept old cars on the road, and – dare I say it? – avoided some of the wasteful and unaesthetically pleasing excesses of capitalism.
Clover Kreger
Dunmore
