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Yesterday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth behaved reprehensibly. Their speeches<\/a> before several hundred assembled military commanders and their senior noncommissioned officers (NCOs) were tantamount to incitement\u2014a genuinely dangerous effort to suborn the military\u2019s oath and condition them for using violence against their fellow Americans.<\/p>\n Their words should leave no doubt in anyone\u2019s mind that the civilian leadership intends to use the threat and actuality of violence to infringe on Americans\u2019 constitutional rights. Where Americans, like me, can take some comfort is in the quiet professionalism displayed by our military in this disgraceful and dangerous maelstrom.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Yesterday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth behaved reprehensibly. Their speeches<\/a> before several hundred assembled military commanders and their senior noncommissioned officers (NCOs) were tantamount to incitement\u2014a genuinely dangerous effort to suborn the military\u2019s oath and condition them for using violence against their fellow Americans.<\/p>\n Their words should leave no doubt in anyone\u2019s mind that the civilian leadership intends to use the threat and actuality of violence to infringe on Americans\u2019 constitutional rights. Where Americans, like me, can take some comfort is in the quiet professionalism displayed by our military in this disgraceful and dangerous maelstrom.<\/p>\n Hegseth called all the military\u2019s commanding officers to Quantico, Virginia, for a pep rally. The secretary\u2019s office previewed it as him giving<\/a> a speech on grooming, standards, and his \u201cwarrior ethos\u201d vision. Trump said<\/a> it would be \u201ca very nice meeting talking about how well we\u2019re doing militarily \u2026 talking about a lot of good, positive things.\u201d<\/p>\n What transpired was the commander in chief darkly asserting that \u201cwe\u2019re under invasion from within.\u201d Trump extolled his executive order \u201cto provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it\u2019s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.\u201d He said he had instructed the secretary of defense to \u201cuse some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.\u201d The president claimed<\/a> Washington, D.C., was more violent than anything our military experienced in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n Hegseth preceded the president, calling for a \u201chistoric reassertion of our purpose.\u201d Sounding like the infamous sergeant major<\/a> from the HBO series Generation Kill<\/em>, he emphasized the importance of grooming standards and physical fitness. He also asserted an end to \u201cstupid rules of engagement,\u201d saying that the military\u2019s job is to \u201cbreak things and kill people.\u201d<\/p>\n While it\u2019s embarrassing for a not particularly successful National Guard major to lecture officers and senior NCOs who have spent 30 to 40 years defending the United States about the need for a warrior ethos, at least Hegseth\u2019s lines fit within the advertised pep rally. What did not was the civilian leader of the Department of Defense instructing that \u201cif the words I\u2019m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign\u201d\u2014especially when coupled with the president\u2019s calls for violence against fellow Americans.<\/p>\n These are unprecedented and dangerous words from the civilian leadership of our military. What was reassuring was how the military leaders reacted. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine introduced the secretary as the secretary of war\u2014distasteful, since only Congress has the authority to change the department\u2019s name, and it has not done so. But that was probably unavoidable in the circumstances and was more than balanced out by the comportment of Caine and his colleagues. They exemplified the professional restraint of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at State of the Union addresses: present but not participating in the politics.<\/p>\n Trump was clearly taken aback, encouraging them: \u201cIf you want to applaud, applaud.\u201d They did not, just as the chiefs do not applaud at the political festival that is the State of the Union address. It is the appropriate professional response by the military when forced by their civilian leaders into being present at political events.<\/p>\n