"Ignore the Supreme Court. Arrest anyone who tries to enforce this. Dissolve the Supreme Court entirely if they push. You can deport foreigners or you don’t have a country anymore. There are no good choices now. Donald Trump is the last thing before we get a dictator. I wonder if he knows this. Not a left wing dictator either. The Right will demand a dictator if Trump is not allowed to implement the will of the voters. And they will get one. A terrible place to be as a country." -Commentator and USMC combat veteran Jesse Kelly
While I normally consider it taboo to “Swiftboat” a fellow veteran’s military service, I feel compelled to question what Kelly actually experienced while deployed to Iraq. As a Marine, Kelly was among the first U.S. combat troops to enter Baghdad. I have to ask myself: what did he witness while he was there? Saddam Hussein was a secular dictator, and the remnants of his Ba’athist regime were on full display in 2003. Kelly also would have encountered both al-Qaeda and the early stages of what would become ISIS, a direct result of Paul Bremer’s illogical decision to completely dismantle Iraq’s political and military infrastructure in May 2003.
Kelly’s latest suggestion leaves me with a simple question: What in the hell did you see when you were in Iraq? Were you paying attention at all? Flirting with dictatorship simply because it’s “your side” is not only un-American, it’s extraordinarily foolish. Time and again, dictators turn on their own allies—and someone like Jesse Kelly would be expendable under a right-wing dictatorship.
If you don’t believe me, let’s crack open the history books:
Adolf Hitler: During the “Night of the Long Knives” (June 1934), Hitler ordered the murder of dozens of his own political allies and SA leaders, including Ernst Röhm, to consolidate power and eliminate rivals within the Nazi movement.
Saddam Hussein: Saddam routinely executed or imprisoned members of his own Baath Party and military suspected of disloyalty. Notably, five leaders of the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party were sentenced to death as Saddam consolidated power. Thousands of political rivals, including former allies, were killed or disappeared under his rule.
Fidel Castro: After coming to power, Castro imprisoned and executed former comrades and revolutionary allies who were deemed threats or accused of counter-revolutionary activity. Some of the Moncada Barracks attackers who survived were later purged, and Castro’s government became notorious for imprisoning dissident former allies.
Joseph Stalin: Stalin’s Great Purge (1936–1938) saw the execution or imprisonment of countless Communist Party members, military leaders, and even close associates. High-ranking Bolsheviks like Zinoviev and Kamenev were promised their lives would be spared if they confessed, but Stalin broke that promise and had them—and their families—executed.
If witnessing firsthand what a secular dictator did to his own people, or what religious zealots did to their “enemies,” in Iraq isn’t enough to snap Kelly out of his self-induced romanticism of authoritarianism, I would offer one last simple reminder for my fellow veteran:
I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God.)
