With all of the protests and civil unrest going on recently , this public statement from former SecDef and Marine Corps General James Mattis may well have flown under most people’s radar.
But the fact that General Mattis has broken with the usual tradition for retired military officers to avoid the appearance of violating Article 88 (contempt toward officials) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is rather shocking, to say the least.
And before you say that “well, General Mattis is retired”, do keep in mind that the courts have generally held that even retirees from regular components of the military who are drawing their military pension could theoretically be recalled to active duty, charged under the UMCJ, and court martialed.
Granted, the last time Article 88 was invoked against a retiree was about 100 years ago and the Army musician in question was acquitted. But the tradition that the military does not generally enjoy the same rights to free speech that civilians do under the Constitution and the usual desire of the military to remain as apolitical as possible, it’s very rare to hear any of them speaking out about the administration du jour much less a decorated and distinguished Marine and former SecDef!
However, given that the norms of behaviour by the civilian authorities towards the military seems to be going out the window with regular Army MP units patrolling Washington DC…who is to say that Mr Trump wouldn’t be advised by some of his henchmen to at least consider a court martial in this case? IMO, Mr Trump would be foolish to try but that’s not stopped him from pursuing some of his more objectionable policies…
My father refused to discuss politics or politicians in public for the thirty years he was retired until the day he died. He certainly had his opinions of them (generally he had no use for nor would he trust any of them!) but the only time you would ever hear him speak of those opinions was if he felt secure in the knowledge they’d never end up in the papers. It was hard enough to get him to speak of his unclassified experiences in the Army to begin with!
But I do remember more than a few times when he’d specifically mention Article 88 as to the reason he wouldn’t try to enlist the media to help correct injustice suffered at the hands of the VA.
Or when he’d get ordered to report for a briefing on retiree benefits at Mayport (usually for bad news of budget cuts!) which he’d happily comply with if for no other reason than to see if “those Washington weenies make it out of the auditorium alive” as a form of entertainment. Usually said weenies would remind the retirees of Article 88 vis-a-vis any statements they might wish to make to the press which was apparently met with derision and cat-calls by the half of the retirees who bothered to turn up for the meeting.
Whether one agrees with General Mattis’ opinions or not…the fact that he was willing to make them publicly in spite of Article 88 should certainly be considered!