What else do you call Martin Lewis' direct call for the overthrow of the Constitutional principle of civilian control of the military by having a general relieve the President of his constitutional role of commander-in-chief during time of war?

Though you are Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President's principal military advisor - President Bush has shown his disdain for your honesty and wisdom. Though you are a decorated Vietnam war hero - who has served his nation honorably for four decades - the President is dispensing with your services. You have one month left in your position before you are tossed out by the President.

President Bush is going to ignore your advice. Just as he has ignored the advice of other Generals who have had the courage to respectfully point out how terribly wrong he is in respect of the Iraq War and the safety of the US military he is sworn to protect. Highly-decorated colleagues of yours such as General Anthony Zinni (Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command), General Eric Shinseki (Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army) and General John Abizaid (Commander of the U.S. Central Command).

General Pace - you have the power to fulfill your responsibility to protect the troops under your command. Indeed you have an obligation to do so.

You can relieve the President of his command.

Not of his Presidency. But of his military role as Commander-In-Chief.

That is, of course, a military coup and a direct abrogation of the US Constitution. The military is subordinate to the President.

What is most shocking is this disingenuous disclaimer.

To be crystal clear - I am NOT advocating or inciting you to undertake any illegal act, insurrection, mutiny, putsch or military coup. You are an honorable patriotic man.

I am NOT advocating or inciting you to interfere with any of the civilian duties of the President. That would not be a legal action by you.

However you have the legal responsibility - under Article 134 of the Uniform Code Of Military Justice - to protect the troops under your command by relieving the President of his MILITARY command…

In addition to relieving him of his command as Commander-In-Chief, you also have authority to place the President under MILITARY arrest.

Now let's break this down -- he is urging the general to violate his oath to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution by preventing the President from exercising his powers under that Constitution, and to do so by illegally (indeed, unconstitutionally) using military force to that end. That would be unlawful, an insurrection, an act of mutiny, and, consequently, a military coup. And the call for a military trial of the President while he is detained under military arrest prior to and during a military trial is undeniably one which would interfere with the President's civilian duties -- one of which is to be the civilian head of the armed forces exercising civilian control over the same.

In effect, the author is calling on the general to dispense with the constitutional method of removing a president -- impeachment. Given that the House lacks the votes to impeach and the Senate lacks the votes to convict, Lewis is calling for the subordination of the Executive Branch to military control, but also the Legislative Branch. No doubt any attempt to use the courts to legally challenge this military coup would be suppressed, so we would also see the constitutional role of the Judicial Branch overthrown. Interesting how quickly this Leftist is prepared to dispense with the Constitution just to get rid of a President and policies he disagrees with. Who is the fascist?

Captain Ed points out a number of flaws, some of which I have touched upon.

Lewis quotes extensively from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but clearly his scholarship does not extend to the Constitution. The command of the armed forces follows from the president’s election to office, and cannot be separated from the office itself. Bush isn’t C-in-C because he got appointed to that position, but because the American electorate voted him into that role. In other words, the military cannot arrest the C-in-C but leave the President in power, and to argue otherwise is to demonstrate complete ignorance.

Secondly, the President does not serve at the pleasure of the Joint Chiefs — and indeed, the military is subservient to the civilian command structure. They do not have arrest authority over the President — nor over anyone else in the US other than military personnel, as the Posse Comitatus Act stipulates. Civilian oversight keeps the military from seizing power and is a long and vital tradition in this nation. It’s what keeps us from becoming a banana republic, run by military strongmen.

Lewis wants to turn America into just that kind of nation. His Bush-hatred runs so deep that he would willingly see the military take control over the federal government just to get rid of him. The Left likes to talk about supposed fascism among conservatives, but the Huffington Post is literally calling for a military coup to reverse an election, not only an un-Constitutional act but also the kind of authoritarian rule they supposedly despise.

I'd argue, as my title suggests, that this post at HuffPo constitutes treason on Lewis' part -- and possibly on the part of Arianna Huffington for allowing it to continue to run on her site. However, Clayton Cramer suggests that it might merely be sedition, and points out that Lewis has taken a course of action that could legitimately lead to his imprisonment for the next twenty years.

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