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Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 1st, 2023
  • gardylou@lemmy.worldtoYou Should Know@lemmy.world•YSK the full scope of the recent US presidential immunity decision
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    4 months ago

    To this point, the military has remained an independent institution that has followed rule of law–the Iraq War, however awful, was legally authorized (note: I am not saying that soldiers haven’t done illegal things, but the military writ large has been beyond the reach of the president to be wielded like a weapon to do explicitly illegal things).

    Trump mused bombing antiquities in his presidency, and the military swiftly responded that they are bound not to follow illegal orders.

    My fear now is that if military leadership falls into the wrong hands, immunity can be used to argue that the conduct is no longer considered illegal, or the line becomes so blurred that it ceases to functionally exist.

    If that happened under a president like Trump, God help us, every horrible nightmare outcome could be on the table.