Caveat: I’m a turbo POG. I’m a guard JAG who is currently assigned to drill at a headquarters and I work mostly around field grade officers and a few generals. But I still hear things, I still hear what gets pushback and what gets laughs. What’s more, this workplace in both uniform and civilian cases is very diverse ethnically, racially, sexuality-wise, and education-wise. So I don’t know what the operators are saying.
With that out of the way, I can report an interesting change in the last several years. Consistent with “not taking him literally,” many in the military thought Trump would “let us do our job.” It was the basic decades’ old perception that Democrats were soft.
I didn’t hear a lot of pushback about his attacks on McCain, at least from junior members. I was in the room when a two-star had an absolute conniption at an E-8 who made a joke about POWs not being “badass” because they got caught. People who work in cyber have been freaking out for a while, but I don’t hear their concerns getting a lot of traction.
This year things started to change.
Not responding to Iran when they shot down our drone set the table, I think. It was just so much different than what people expected. I’m not even saying I disagree or that people disagreed. It just seemed to change the conversation.
Not long after that, it came out that Trump called Mattis the “most overrated general.” This, to me, started the “us against him” narrative. There’s a lot of respect for Mattis in the military from the top to the bottom. I don’t think much of the things other three and four-stars have said really trickled down. McRaven maybe, but I have yet to hear anyone talk about Stavridis or Alexander, for example.
All of that set the table for the reversal in Syria. You have to understand, whatever your feelings about the military, that people get into it for a lot of reasons, but they put up with what they put up with out of something like a genuine altruism and a sense of honor and purpose.
For example, when I wrestle with my conscience, I say, look, I’m not going to kill anyone. I’m going to prepare soldiers to get deployed in combat and help them with their legal affairs so they have one less think to think about so they can focus on staying alive. I feel very protective of these folks. It keeps me from quitting. A sense of purpose keeps us going.
But people freaked the fuck out about Syria. It goes against so many military values, or, to put it in the context of my last paragraph, it makes us wonder what the fuck we are even doing.
This changed the tone of the conversation a lot. Now remember, we’re not supposed to comment directly on politics in official capacities, but that doesn't mean stray comments and sidebars don’t happen. I’m just reporting on the change of tone in my corner of the huge military world.
The attacks on Vindman and the pardoning of war criminals have been received in that context instead of just being minor issue its adding straws to camels backs and they are breaking.
I’d love to see some polling on military opinions of Trump. Any negative movement would be a powerful talking point for Ds.
edit: thanks for all the recs! In 15+ years here I’ve never had so many though I did last on the list longer one time slagging Arizona for their papers please law. ❤️