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The second perspective — that the military simply is not above or outside of the nation’s politics — demands that we call military silence and inaction by its name: in the worst scenarios, complicity in the shredding of the Constitution, comfort to the enemies of democracy, and facilitation of an authoritarian coup (not by the military itself, but rather the unlawful seizure of power by Trump).

The second perspective — that the military simply is not above or outside of the nation’s politics — demands that we call military silence and inaction by its name: in the worst scenarios, complicity in the shredding of the Constitution, comfort to the enemies of democracy, and facilitation of an authoritarian coup (not by the military itself, but rather the unlawful seizure of power by Trump).

In their open letter,<ref>https://www.captainsjournal.com/2020/08/12/john-nagl-and-paul-yingling-advocate-oath-breaking/</ref>  Nagl and Yingling were asking the general to act if and only if an authoritarian coup has already taken place — and to do so strictly in accordance with his personal oath to the Constitution. We see the ascendency of the first perspective in the vitriol poured upon their argument. These otherwise respected figures are vilified as advocating a military take-over and mocked for suggesting that a staff officer (especially the chairman, who has no direct command authority over any troops) should somehow be involved. It is as though the authors were channeling Othello’s Iago, a Spartan dog if ever there was one, in their advice to Milley: “follow him, to serve your turn upon him.”

In their open letter,<ref>https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/08/all-enemies-foreign-and-domestic-open-letter-gen-milley/167625/</ref>  Nagl and Yingling were asking the general to act if and only if an authoritarian coup has already taken place — and to do so strictly in accordance with his personal oath to the Constitution. We see the ascendency of the first perspective in the vitriol poured upon their argument. These otherwise respected figures are vilified as advocating a military take-over and mocked for suggesting that a staff officer (especially the chairman, who has no direct command authority over any troops) should somehow be involved. It is as though the authors were channeling Othello’s Iago, a Spartan dog if ever there was one, in their advice to Milley: “follow him, to serve your turn upon him.”

Nagl and Yingling’s critics are right in describing such military intervention as unlawful and outrageous, but they err in labeling it a military take-over and are wrong in assuring the public it won’t be preferable to the alternative.

Nagl and Yingling’s critics are right in describing such military intervention as unlawful and outrageous, but they err in labeling it a military take-over and are wrong in assuring the public it won’t be preferable to the alternative.