The military is commanded by a civilian politician. It's one of those pesky constitutional things. The founding fathers insisted on that for a reason. There was great insight in Franklin's response to the lady " ... if you can keep it."
Does the US Military Still Execute Spies Discovered Within its Ranks?
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No I meant that as a response to "The US military can no longer deal with its own bad actors.". The transfer of power is from the military commanders to the military court martial judges, and only for those certain special crimes, not for the original topic of espionage. The military is still dealing with it's own, and no one is taking it over, except itself which is impossible because it already has control of itself. And yes, politicians overall have control of it as warren says, but that level of control remains unchanged with this new order.
Also, I think you have a misconception about the UCMJ. It's not some established unchanged flawless code from centuries ago. It's been changed many times, even within the past decade. We've always messed with it, to make it better and update it. If we don't mess with it it becomes antiquated, ineffective, and eventually useless.
This is getting bogged down in definitions, I'm afraid.
I never said---or thought---the UCMJ was an "established unchanged flawless code from centuries ago", I said it had evolved into what it is today. And evolution means change. It is change.
As for civilians running the military, the Secretary of Defense sits at the top and always has (of course), but that's not relevant to the day-to-day operations of running a military unit.
What I suspect is happening---but only suspect... meaning it's what it "smells like" given the past few years in this country---is certain civilians have forceably taken over the military's internal disciplinary system to impose and enforce laws that THEY think are important, but the military never WILL.
I can see why you would think that. Your suspicions are not unfounded, but that effect is more influenced by other policies and instructions, not the UCMJ. Check out the first DOD policy on "extremism" that came out after Jan 6, there's some... off... stuff in there, seemingly intentionally vague. Policies like that use the UCMJ as a vehicle to punitively enforce. Every policy that is signed by a commissioned officer is enforceable under article 92 at a minimum as a failure to obey an order or regulation. That can get pretty smelly when the policies are being influenced by certain people, things, and events.
I went to law school with a boy named Earl Edwin Pitts whose father was briefly engaged to my mother in the summer of 1946.
His father married some shirttail relative of my mother, so Earl is a very distant shirttail relative of mine.
After we graduated Earl became an FBI agent and sold secrets to Russia. He got caught and spent 22 years in federal prison.
en.m.wikipedia.org
My mother called me when Earl got busted and made me promise to never become a spy, and so far I’ve kept my word.
Not that there’s a lot of demand for secrets about Pipes by Lee and Marxman to offer to spymasters anyhow.
Lock those boys up until they are young old men.
Somewhere, two mother’s hearts are broken.
His father married some shirttail relative of my mother, so Earl is a very distant shirttail relative of mine.
After we graduated Earl became an FBI agent and sold secrets to Russia. He got caught and spent 22 years in federal prison.
Earl Edwin Pitts - Wikipedia
My mother called me when Earl got busted and made me promise to never become a spy, and so far I’ve kept my word.
Not that there’s a lot of demand for secrets about Pipes by Lee and Marxman to offer to spymasters anyhow.
Lock those boys up until they are young old men.
Somewhere, two mother’s hearts are broken.
Indeed.
"The introduction of termites into a wooden structure will eventually cause great destruction. All you have to do is wait."
This guy:
Treason (actions against one's own country & people), in all its forms should be dealt with in the most robust manner.
I used to be pro execution but over the years I've changed my views. Rather than having my pound of flesh at the gallows/Old Sparky, I feel that a life (with no parole) behind bars is a more suitable sentence as the culprit has a very long time to reflect and that in my view would be a more appropriate punishment.
That's my tuppence worth.
Regards,
Jay.
I used to be pro execution but over the years I've changed my views. Rather than having my pound of flesh at the gallows/Old Sparky, I feel that a life (with no parole) behind bars is a more suitable sentence as the culprit has a very long time to reflect and that in my view would be a more appropriate punishment.
That's my tuppence worth.
Regards,
Jay.
Normally I prefer to receive this sort of content on FOX "News" or Liberty Radio. Happily, most of what appears in this forum is on a much higher plane, especially when we confine our discussion to Pipes and Pipe Smoking.
As a Navy vet of 27 years and a former Commanding Officer, I'd like to try to clarify a few things:
1. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is federal law, therefore changes to the UCMJ have to be approved by Congress, the most recent version (2019) can be found here: https://jsc.defense.gov/Portals/99/...nal) (20190108).pdf?ver=2019-01-11-115724-610
2. The UCMJ retains the death penalty for several offenses, e.g., murder and espionage.
3. Military justice is dispensed on several levels -- non-judicial punishment (Captain's Mast for Navy folks, Office Hours for Marines), Summary, Special and General Courts Martial. Each level has a prescribed set of maximum punishments it can issue. A General Courts Martial can impose the death penalty. Normally cases are addressed at the lowest level appropriate to the offense, though any case no matter how trivial can be referred to and tried by a Courts Martial. Occasionally a more senior officer in the chain of command will direct an offense to be addressed at a Courts Martial instead of at Captain's Mast.
Can you post a link to the information that led you to this conclusion?
From what I've found and read, the executive order only pertains to sexual assaults and sexual assaults related crimes.
All other offenses which are prosecutable under the UCMJ remains the same.
The logic behind this change is that there have been too many instances where senior officers have influenced the outcome of the courts-martial or have trampled on the rights of the victim. I saw both happen during my 21+ years in the Coast Guard.
I will also be interested to see if this executive order gets challenged in the future because as someone else mentioned, I thought changes to the UCMJ had to be made by congress.
One mans traitor is in another universe a principled man of conscious! It is interesting that Capital Hanging was paused in the U.K in 1965 and abolished in 1969 with the exceptions of 'Mutiny in time of war, treason, attempting to kill the sovereign and burning of the Royal Docks'. Interesting these last provisions were abolished by Tony Blair probably as an act of self preservation. I must admit to often wishing that grinning hyena Tony Blair would exit the world with a bag over his head and disappear permanently through the trap door of Wormwood Scrubs gallows like some stage villain!
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