2008 Woodie Awards
Look from 2017 shows generals made right call
Catherine Morrisey
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Editorials
- Page 1 of 1
As a history major, I am fascinated with the way my generation will be remembered. History books rarely talk about people because they are too diverse, too difficult to fit into a convenient paragraph. Instead, history books will define our generation by what surrounded the White House.
So how will we all be remembered? Pretend that you are in college 10 years from now and I am the professor for your America in Crisis course. The lecture might go something like this:
Everyone is familiar with the broad outlines of the crisis in 2007, which began when President Bush ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to launch military operations against Iran.
Three of the central questions in this debate are still unresolved, and will no doubt remain so. First, did the Joint Chiefs act within the law when they refused to follow the president's orders, and instead instructed the Pentagon's lawyers to request an emergency hearing before the Supreme Court?
Second, did the Supreme Court interpret the Constitution correctly when, by a 5-4 vote, it ruled that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority by, in effect, declaring war against Iran without congressional authorization?
Third, did the refusal of the Bush administration to obey this ruling provide grounds for the impeachment and conviction of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
Even the staunchest advocates of the Joint Chief's actions must admit there was something profoundly disturbing about the sight of the country's highest military officers taking it upon themselves to decide that the only way to save the republic was to disobey direct orders from the president.
Still, to understand the events of that extraordinary time, it's necessary to appreciate the almost cult-like atmosphere of power worship and war hysteria, which by the spring of 2007 had taken hold of both the Bush administration and many leading intellectuals.
The view became that - much like Machiavelli's prince - a president should do whatever was necessary to preserve his own power and protect the people. After all, the rule of law is obnoxiously inconvenient at times.
During the same week in May 2007, Thomas Sowell mused that he couldn't "help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup." The day came sooner than Sowell could've guessed.
The generals who refused to follow the president's orders in the summer of 2007 did so on the grounds that they had not taken oaths of loyalty to their commander-in-chief, but to the Constitution. The day on which the deep patriotism of our soldiers helped rescue the republic remains both one of the saddest and most glorious in American history.
It was, in many ways, their finest hour.
- Catherine Morrisey is a senior history major and a Mirror columnist.
So how will we all be remembered? Pretend that you are in college 10 years from now and I am the professor for your America in Crisis course. The lecture might go something like this:
Everyone is familiar with the broad outlines of the crisis in 2007, which began when President Bush ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to launch military operations against Iran.
Three of the central questions in this debate are still unresolved, and will no doubt remain so. First, did the Joint Chiefs act within the law when they refused to follow the president's orders, and instead instructed the Pentagon's lawyers to request an emergency hearing before the Supreme Court?
Second, did the Supreme Court interpret the Constitution correctly when, by a 5-4 vote, it ruled that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority by, in effect, declaring war against Iran without congressional authorization?
Third, did the refusal of the Bush administration to obey this ruling provide grounds for the impeachment and conviction of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
Even the staunchest advocates of the Joint Chief's actions must admit there was something profoundly disturbing about the sight of the country's highest military officers taking it upon themselves to decide that the only way to save the republic was to disobey direct orders from the president.
Still, to understand the events of that extraordinary time, it's necessary to appreciate the almost cult-like atmosphere of power worship and war hysteria, which by the spring of 2007 had taken hold of both the Bush administration and many leading intellectuals.
The view became that - much like Machiavelli's prince - a president should do whatever was necessary to preserve his own power and protect the people. After all, the rule of law is obnoxiously inconvenient at times.
During the same week in May 2007, Thomas Sowell mused that he couldn't "help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup." The day came sooner than Sowell could've guessed.
The generals who refused to follow the president's orders in the summer of 2007 did so on the grounds that they had not taken oaths of loyalty to their commander-in-chief, but to the Constitution. The day on which the deep patriotism of our soldiers helped rescue the republic remains both one of the saddest and most glorious in American history.
It was, in many ways, their finest hour.
- Catherine Morrisey is a senior history major and a Mirror columnist.
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