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Hornets’ Nest: Hegseth Fires the JAGs
American Thinker ^ | 19 Mar, 2025 | bruce tucker smith

Posted on 03/19/2025 4:29:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber

In February, SecDef Hegseth fired the Army’s and Air Force’s top uniformed lawyers (the judge advocates general, or “JAGs” for short). Two retired Air Force JAG major generals, Charles J. Dunlap and Steven J. Lepper, responded with online outrage. Both former JAG generals essentially claimed that SecDef Hegseth had overstepped his legal and moral authority and imperiled the nation, the military, and the rule of law. Their well timed writings stoked the political left’s furor occasioned by President Trump’s firing of Joint Chiefs Chairman Brown and CNO Franchetti.

Both retired generals’ comments should be rejected because they ignore the most basic qualification for being an attorney, military or otherwise: an attorney must have the confidence and trust of the client. This qualification applies doubly to senior military officers.

It is clear that the dismissed JAGs did not enjoy the confidence of their new clients and for good reasons. Their embrace of pernicious, anti-merit DIE initiatives, which violate U.S. law and are inimical to good order, morale, and discipline, marked them as unreliable counselors in the minds of their new clients.

In the Feb. 22 edition of Lawfire, retired USAF deputy JAG, now Duke law professor Dunlap complained that “military legal officers ... are never expected to be replaced on a change of Administration” and that “stripping the armed forces of its senior uniformed legal advisors tasked by [10 U.S.C. §9037] to provide independent advice sends all wrong messages throughout the military legal community, not to mention to commanders.”

On Feb. 23, retired major general Lepper upped the ante, claiming that the firings were driven by “reckless motives that should scare every American” and said POTUS and the SecDef had “remove[d] the only remaining guardrails preventing military personnel from following unlawful orders.”

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: gtfo; hegseth; winning; wokeism
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1 posted on 03/19/2025 4:29:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Good! Drive the woke into the wilderness to ponder their errors.


2 posted on 03/19/2025 4:29:57 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Hegseth has been quietly impressive thus far, is my take.


3 posted on 03/19/2025 4:32:51 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: MtnClimber

“Do you know who I am?!”


4 posted on 03/19/2025 4:33:19 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: MtnClimber

How many senior officers did George Marshall and Admiral Leahy pass over in an effort to find leaders who could fight a war. It was historic, literally.


5 posted on 03/19/2025 4:37:01 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: FreedomPoster

“Hegseth has been quietly impressive thus far, is my take.”

He sure has. The other day he was making a point about the military, and his word, “UNRELENTING!’ was memorable.

I wonder what/who exactly brought him to Trump’s attention for this position. I always liked him, but wasn’t aware of his higher and stronger talents.


6 posted on 03/19/2025 4:37:09 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: FreedomPoster

Really? I’ll bet his power point skills suck.


7 posted on 03/19/2025 4:37:35 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: MtnClimber

I’d like to go back and see what these 2 Generals said when Obama did nearly the same thing.

Actually it’s one of those historical events the low info voter knows nothing about. Obama held a bloodless purge and fired something like a few hundred conservative top officers, disturbingly many in SAC. He used any excuse of incompetence.

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/197-military-officers-purged-by-obama/


8 posted on 03/19/2025 4:40:28 AM PDT by Phoenix8
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To: FreedomPoster

Agreed—he is over the target.

The flak is the proof.


9 posted on 03/19/2025 4:41:50 AM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
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To: MtnClimber
…Two retired Air Force JAG major generals, Charles J. Dunlap and Steven J. Lepper, responded with online outrage. Both former JAG generals essentially claimed that SecDef Hegseth had overstepped his legal and moral authority and imperiled the nation, the military, and the rule of law…

Poopy-pants & Fiends got to overstep their legal and moral authority to open the borders, flood the country with illegals and drugs, and all the death and chaos that followed, spend money we don’t have, and mire the country in debt to the tune of $36 trillion. Where was their outrage through all that? What sage advice did they offer to Trump before he took decisive executive action?

10 posted on 03/19/2025 4:54:19 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: MtnClimber

The more screeching that’s going on, the more winning that’s happening.


11 posted on 03/19/2025 4:57:49 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: MtnClimber

Good for Pete!
Winning!


12 posted on 03/19/2025 5:08:01 AM PDT by PubliusMM (RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion. The Dhimmicraps are ALL Traitors. All of them.)
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To: MtnClimber

Post them all at Ice Station Zebra and give them rifles for the first time since basic.


13 posted on 03/19/2025 5:14:54 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Sometimes There Is No Lesser Of Two Evils)
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To: MtnClimber

Good. Lawyers can cause a lot of problems.


14 posted on 03/19/2025 5:20:47 AM PDT by yldstrk (Nothing like the truth)
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To: MtnClimber

“Let’s kill all the lawyers,” Shakespeare


15 posted on 03/19/2025 5:29:37 AM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Hail to Pitt!)
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To: MtnClimber

In the linked article from American Thinker, the author goes point by point over the Constitution and the codified and legally passed legislation on the matter!

Leftists HATE that...just HATE it.


16 posted on 03/19/2025 5:41:42 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A people that elect corrupt politicians are not victims...but accomplices." George Orwell)
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To: MeanWestTexan

Hahahaha...if they put them at Ice Station Zebra, they will be right at home with Rock Hudson!


17 posted on 03/19/2025 5:43:19 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A people that elect corrupt politicians are not victims...but accomplices." George Orwell)
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To: MtnClimber

“The old order changeth yielding place to the new”

Trannies will not be permitted to pollute the military. Those unwilling to accept that condition must not prevail


18 posted on 03/19/2025 5:49:10 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Where is ZORRO when California so desperately needs him?)
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To: MtnClimber

Quick! Somebody let Major General Lepper down easily onto the fainting couch. He has the vapors.


19 posted on 03/19/2025 5:51:36 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (Democrats who say ‘no one is above the law’ won’t mind going to prison for the money they stole)
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To: MtnClimber
Lepper upped the ante, claiming that the firings were driven by “reckless motives that should scare every American” and said POTUS and the SecDef had “remove[d] the only remaining guardrails preventing military personnel from following unlawful orders.”

SmokeBlower

What prevents military personnel from following unlawful orders is common sense and morality - virtues severely lacking in "DEI" Brown and his ilk. Cashier them all with a reduction of rank.

20 posted on 03/19/2025 5:58:00 AM PDT by MikelTackNailer (Free compassion and beer tomorrow.)
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