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Retired Gen. Jack Keane didn’t mince words on America’s Newsroom when he called the Democrats’ appeal to the military “disgraceful,” warning that elected officials should not be dragging uniformed servicemembers into partisan theater. Keane, a career officer who understands the fragile discipline that holds our armed forces together, said the move was irresponsible and reckless — precisely the sort of politicization that undermines trust in the chain of command.
What touched off the firestorm was a short video released by six Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds urging service members and intelligence professionals to refuse illegal orders. The clip, intended as a warning about the sanctity of the Constitution, explicitly told troops they could and should refuse unlawful orders — a message that, stripped of nuance, reads as encouragement to question the commander in chief at a moment of high tension.
President Trump responded with fury, calling the lawmakers’ message “seditious behavior” and using his platform to demand accountability, language that ratcheted the controversy into a national crisis. Whether one applauds or recoils at the president’s tone, the larger fact is that this episode has ripped open partisan wounds and forced everyone to confront the real question: who keeps the military apolitical and obedient to lawful civilian authority?
Senator Elissa Slotkin defended the video in interviews, insisting the message was about legal duty not politics, and even admitted she was not aware of any specific illegal orders from the president. That equivocation exposes the core problem — if there is no concrete example of an unlawful order, publicly urging troops to resist hypothetical commands crosses a line from caution into chaos.
To be clear, military law recognizes an obligation to refuse unlawful orders, but that duty is narrow and fraught; the Uniform Code of Military Justice punishes refusal to obey lawful commands, and rank-and-file members don’t have the legal apparatus to make these determinations on the spot. Reckless public calls by members of Congress asking troops to “refuse” orders without specific legal context risk putting young service members in impossible positions and degrading the very discipline that protects lives and national security.
Conservatives who defend the military’s apolitical tradition aren’t being reflexively partisan — we’re defending the institutions that keep our republic functioning. Politicians who weaponize their military résumés for partisan advantage should be held to account, and colleagues in both parties should have the courage to condemn any effort that plants seeds of insubordination in the ranks.
If anything good can come from this mess, let it be a renewed commitment among lawmakers to keep the military above politics, to provide clear legal guidance when concerns arise, and to stop using service members as props in Washington’s culture wars. Our armed forces deserve clarity, not confusion; respect, not rhetoric; and leaders who prioritize the nation’s security over short-term political theater.
