Was Time to Hang Up the Uniform… and Speak Up Donald J. Bacon, Brig Gen (Retired) I retired from the United States Air Force on 31 October after 29 years wearing the blue uniform. I loved the airmen I served with and embraced the mission of supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States. I could have served for several more years as a 1-star, and was still eligible to compete for 2-star (and not assuming I would have made it), but decided it was time to retire early. Why? For various reasons, but primarily because I do not like the direction our President is taking our country. I fear that our Constitution is not being honored faithfully. I worry about the decline of our religious freedoms. And, I’m distressed by how we treat our best allies. I decided I could be of more value as an engaged citizen. We count on our servicemen and women to be non-partisan, and the day we can’t do that we need to hang-up the uniform. We will always need a strong military, but more than ever we need engaged citizens. I want to continue serving but in a different way. Only about one in twenty people who have lived on this earth have enjoyed the freedoms we have in our country. Freedom is precious and rare, but too many in our country take our freedoms for granted. I love our Constitution to include the Amendments that perfected it. Our Founders carefully crafted the Constitution to give us divided powers so that our President or Congress wouldn’t abuse their well defined authorities. Our President increasingly ignores important aspects of our Constitution. One of his primary roles is to faithfully execute the laws that are passed by Congress and signed by the President. So far he’s arbitrarily modified the ObamaCare law 24 times without approval from Congress, and some of those were in a blatant effort to help Democrats during election season, by postponing actions that were going to cost citizens significant amounts of money. Further, he’s intentionally not executing portions of the lawfully passed Immigration Act because he disagrees with the law. He planned on delivering a new Executive Order prior to the midterm elections, giving legal status to perhaps millions of undocumented immigrants in direct violation of the law. But after seeing the polls and getting feedback from beleaguered Democrat Senate candidates he decided to postpone that action until after the election. There is something wrong with this whole discussion. The law needs to be lawfully changed if it needs to be fixed. The problem is his proposal lacks sufficient support. Regardless, Section 8 of Article 1 in the Constitution gives Congress the responsibility for determining immigration policies, not the President. Though Obama is not the only president to do this, it is also wrong to wage long-term combat operations like we did in Libya and now doing in Syria without the approval from Congress. The Constitution involves both the President and Congress when it comes to declaring and waging war. But, forcing a vote in Congress will put anti-war Democrats in a difficult position and they don’t want to be on record one way or other for the current fight in Iraq and Syria. Politics shouldn’t trump the Constitution. When it comes to matters of faith, I’m troubled that too many Christians are being compelled to violate their consciences when it comes to paying for morning after pills in their premiums or being forced to participate in non-traditional weddings if they’re bakers or photographers, and now even pastors. Business owners are paying fines, being forced to attend sensitivity training, and some forced out of business because they’re trying to stay true to their faith. We need to find a way where tolerance cuts both ways…the pendulum needs to be in the middle and not too far to one side or the other. We can’t forget our Puritan beginnings in which Christians made the perilous journey to America so they could live their faith daily without harassment from the governments in Europe. Finally, I’ve been embarrassed to see how two of our best allies are treated. Great Britain has been our best ally for a hundred years and has stood by our side during the Cold War and in the Middle East. I was embarrassed to look my Royal Air Force friends in the eyes when the Obama administration announced it was going to remain neutral between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the Falklands. Israel is our best ally in the Middle East and is the only democracy, and we’re continually undermining its leadership and policies. President Bush may not have been popular around the globe, but at least he treated our best Allies like friends. We can’t stand by idly if we fear the direction of our country. To standby and say nothing as a citizen makes us partner to bad policies. We need to stand-up and defend the Constitution when it is treated like a cheap date. Our nation’s highest elected official must honor our Constitution even when it doesn’t accommodate his political expediencies. This is how we’ll keep the Republic—in the words of Benjamin Franklin.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 17:04:24 +0000
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