Earlier today, I sat down with Frank Rosenblatt of the National Institute of Military Justice and The Orders Project to talk about what happens when the military is no longer used to defend the nation, but to serve a political narrative.
What we’re seeing now with the troops in Los Angeles and the parade through Washington timed to Trump’s birthday isn’t just politics. It’s a deliberate effort to project military dominance and control. I’ve seen it before. I was stationed in Moscow, where military parades and paramilitary shows of force were used to stifle dissent, intimidate the public, and chill First Amendment rights. What Trump is doing echoes that.
And what makes this moment so precarious is that we’re placing impossible moral and legal choices on the backs of junior officers and enlisted troops. A platoon leader told to deploy into an American city might follow a lawful order, but when that order veers into crowd control or domestic intimidation, they need to know what their rights and responsibilities are. That’s why The Orders Project matters. They are building a safety net, offering access to legal experts who can help troops navigate these grey zones. Because when the Commander-in-Chief is testing the limits of the law, we need people in uniform who know the Constitution still comes first.
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