admin
Rep. Brian Mast was blunt and right to call out Democrats who produced and promoted that reckless video telling service members they could defy “illegal orders.” His description of those actions as despicable reflects a basic principle: politics ends where the chain of command and unit cohesion begin, and deliberately encouraging insubordination is a slap in the face to the men and women who put their lives on the line for our country.
The outrage comes amid a tragic backdrop: two West Virginia National Guard members were shot in downtown Washington, D.C., during a targeted ambush while on high-visibility patrol two blocks from the White House. One of the guardswomen later died and her comrade remains critically wounded, a sober reminder that politicizing the military carries real-world consequences for real people.
Authorities say the suspect is an Afghan national who arrived under relocation programs after America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, and investigators are treating the attack as a possible act of terrorism. Whether failures in vetting played any role is for the prosecutors and investigators to determine, but it is not unreasonable for Americans to demand answers about how dangerous individuals slip through the cracks and end up on our streets.
This episode also highlights the toxic mirror game Democrats have been playing: on one hand they cheer for weakening military discipline with rhetorical stunts, and on the other they virtue-signal about national security when tragedy strikes. The video in question — circulated by lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds telling troops they could refuse unlawful orders — was irresponsible and politically motivated, and it predictably inflamed tensions at a time when leadership and unity are essential.
Washington’s liberal elites love to lecture about “civil-military relations” until the moment the armed forces are actually asked to keep citizens safe, and then legalistic theater takes over. A federal judge recently ruled against the federal deployment in D.C., a decision that left brave Guardsmen in legal limbo even as crime and threats surged in the capital; that kind of judicial activism has consequences when lives are at stake.
Enough with the moral preening. If members of Congress deliberately sought to undermine morale and encourage insubordination, they should answer for the political and legal ramifications of those choices. Patriotism means standing up for the rule of law and the people who enforce it, not weaponizing noble-sounding phrases to score partisan points while putting troops at risk.
Americans deserve leaders who bolster the spine of our military and secure our borders — not performative stunts that endanger the very defenders we send into harm’s way. Lawmakers on both sides should put country before political theater, support real investigations into how this suspect entered and remained in the country, and back policies that make sure our soldiers and citizens are safe from foreign threats.
