Treason

 

Take Me To The Pilot

If you feel that it's real I'm on trial
And I'm here in your prison
Like a coin in your mint
I am dented and I'm spent with high treason

Did General Mark Miley commit treason?

In "Peril," the latest book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodard, he writes that in a pair of calls in 2020, General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of the Staff, twice assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Former President Donald Trump and his allies have called that treasonous, accusing Milley of subverting the military chain of command, calling for consequences.

The charges of treason are telling because they indicate that former President Donald Trump and his allies don’t understand what constitutes treason. Treason is an action against the sovereign. In the United States, according to the Constitution, the People are the sovereign. General Milley, and former President Trump took an oath to protect the Constitution. The president is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, but an election does NOT make him the sovereign. Saying that General Milley’s actions were insubordination might have some basis, but it is not insubordination to oppose an action that is itself against the sovereign wishes of the United States.

 
The constitution grants the power to declare war, take an action against another sovereign nation such as China, to the Congress, not to the President. The reality of nuclear war is that actions must be taken faster than Congress can be expected to act, and thus the President can act if there is an immediate threat against the sovereign nation that is the United States. It is possible for a Commander-in-Chief to issue an order to attack despite NO imminent threat to the United States. Such an action would itself be treasonous. To oppose that action is NOT treason. It is the very definition of an action that is NOT treason. 

Donald Trump was not, and never will be, the sovereign of the United States, without an Amendment to its Constitution. The election of 2016 made him the president, not the sovereign. Any action to oppose the orders of Donald Trump, including reminding an enemy sovereign that Donald Trump is not the sovereign of the United States, is consistent with the oath to the constitution, and its sovereign, the people. A person might not agree with that action, but that does not make it treason.