The January 6 assault on the Capitol was a true American horror show, with a ghastly cast of characters encompassing neo-Nazis, white supremacists, QAnon adherents, insurrectionary Trump voters, and members of law enforcement. But arguably the most horrifying participants of all were current and former members of the U.S. military. At least nine former members have been arrested so far, while authorities are investigating the involvement of at least 25 active duty and retired personnel.
Over at The Nation, Jeer Heer argues that the particular responsibilities and skills of the armed forces require intervention by the military’s code of justice, and that this should be applied to both active and retired members of the military:
[F]ormer soldiers should be regarded in a special light if they engage in political violence. As soldiers, members of the armed wing of the state, they received special training. For them to use this training against civilian politicians strikes at the heart of democracy. It’s a betrayal of the fundamental principle that the military has to be subservient to the people. It’s a rejection of the soldier’s oath to the Constitution. There is good reason for that oath to be lifelong and not bound by the period of active service.
By having military tribunals handle former soldiers who attempt a coup, a deterrent is set up for the entire military. Further, the military will be forced in this way to deal with its own internal problems and to weed out potential insurgents. Cleaning up the military and making sure it has not been infected with seditionists will be a major task in the coming years. Forcing the military to deal with rogue soldiers, both current and retired, is a way of hastening this crucial cleanup operation.
Heer is dead-on in pointing out how important it is to keep the military free of insurrectionists; he reminds us that one bright spot of the Trump years has been the military’s solid resistance to being sucked into the president’s undermining of democracy. And ensuring that even retired military personnel cannot escape military justice helps shine a spotlight on the gravity of their crimes. Indeed, this approach is being articulated by some in Congress; Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego (a veteran himself) said that, "I think we should throw the book at them, to the furthest extent possible. If you're off active duty, I want to figure out a way we can bring you back and charge you”; Gallego also noted that convicted veterans should lose their retirement benefits.
But apart from the critical goal of maintaining the military’s subordination to the democratic order, investigating and punishing treasonous soldiers would also convey to American society the gravity of the attack on the Capitol, and the fundamentally traitorous nature of the insurrectionary forces the president has incited to action. As a highly regarded institution, the military has the credibility to remind Americans that there are no grey areas when it comes to attempts to overthrow American democracy. At the same time, highlighting that malign actors can exist even in the military will help remind the public that our institutions must be actively maintained and critiqued, never taken for granted.
There is also a clear need for the military to get its house in order on the extremism front. Reporting indicates that the Pentagon’s efforts to extirpate white nationalists and other extremists from its ranks have not been sufficiently consistent or thorough, leading in part to the spectacle of the FBI running background checks on the Nation Guard soldiers being deployed to Washington to guard the inauguration. It is in fact mind-boggling that the military has not considered this a more serious issue up to now; presidential leadership and congressional oversight will both be required to ensure that military maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward extremism in its personnel.