How did we get here?

How did we get here?
By Paul Mrocka, American
"HOW TO END A 250-YEAR RUN
America has survived for 250 years. We survived wars, a depression, attacks on our own soil, political scandals and presidents from both parties whom many of us could not stand. We survived because no one person was America. Presidents have always come and gone. Elections were held, power changed hands and through it all the military remained loyal to the Constitution. Now imagine you are sitting in Russia and you want to bring that 250-year run to an end. Attacking the strongest military in the world would be almost impossible, but getting America to destroy itself would be much easier.
Start by dividing Americans until Republicans and Democrats no longer see each other as neighbors but as enemies. Make people believe every election they lose was stolen. Destroy their confidence in the courts, the Justice Department, the press and their own intelligence agencies. Eventually, millions of Americans may become more loyal to one man than they are to their Constitution. Russia could then sit back and let us do the rest.
NATO would certainly be next because it has stood in Russia's way for decades. Putin would love to hear an American president question whether we would defend our allies, pressure Ukraine while Russia continued to attack it and treat Canada and European democracies more like enemies than friends. Every time Trump praises Putin, questions American intelligence or makes another NATO country wonder whether America will keep its word, Russia gains something without having to do anything.
The American military would also have to be changed from within. Put people in charge because of their loyalty and television personality instead of their ability to manage one of the largest and most complicated organizations in the world. Pete Hegseth served in the military, and I respect his service, but before becoming secretary of defense he had never run a military department, served as a general officer or managed anything close to the size of the Pentagon. Donald Trump watched him on television and liked what he heard. The Senate confirmed him only after Vice President Vance broke a 50 to 50 tie, and since then we have watched one thing after another happen at the Pentagon.
General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and only the second Black officer to hold that position, was fired. Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy, was removed. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George was fired while our military was involved in a war. Just days ago, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation after reported tensions with Hegseth. Driscoll is the civilian leader of the Army, not its chief of staff, but his resignation is another sign of the turmoil. I keep asking myself how many experienced people have to be fired, pushed aside or driven to resign before we admit something is seriously wrong at the top of our military.
Hegseth also removed the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force. These are the senior military lawyers who tell commanders when an order may not be legal. This is happening while the administration is sending troops into American cities. Why remove the very officers who may someday have to tell a president that he does not have the legal authority to give a particular order? I would think a president who respects the Constitution would want those officers there.
Then there is what has happened to women and Black officers. Qualified women and Black officers have been removed from promotion lists. When Hegseth intervened in one Navy promotion list, the 22 officers left were all men and overwhelmingly white. We now reportedly have no active-duty woman serving as a four-star general or admiral. Hegseth calls this getting rid of DEI and restoring merit, but these officers had already earned their positions. They had served for decades, held commands, attended military schools and passed years of evaluations. Boards made up of experienced officers selected them. Now Pete Hegseth comes along and suddenly they are not good enough.
I am tired of racially discriminatory actions being excused by simply calling them anti-DEI. When women and Black officers are removed in greater numbers while white men move ahead, we have every right to ask what is going on. Young women and minority service members see this. They can work hard, perform well and give years of their lives to the military, only to find out that somebody at the top has a different picture of who should be in command.
When I served, we did not all look alike, pray alike or vote alike. Nobody expected us to. We wore the same uniform and took the same oath, and that oath was to the Constitution. It was not to the president, the secretary of defense or any political party. The Russian military serves the person who controls Russia. The American military serves the Constitution and the American people. That is a very important difference, and we had better not lose it.
We are now seeing the National Guard sent into American cities, sometimes against the wishes of governors and local officials. Little by little, Americans are becoming used to seeing military personnel patrolling their streets. Today we are told it is about crime or immigration, but what about tomorrow? Trump has already called Americans who oppose him the "enemy from within." What happens when a protest is called a rebellion or political opposition is declared a threat to the country?
General Dan Caine recently had to answer questions from Congress about whether troops would be used at polling places during the midterm elections. He said there are no plans to send military personnel there or use them to seize ballots and voting equipment. I was relieved to hear that, but I never expected to hear that question asked in America. We have gone from peacefully transferring power to needing reassurance from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs that soldiers will not be involved in our election. How did we get here?
Putin must be looking at all of this and smiling. Americans are fighting among themselves, confidence in elections has been damaged, NATO is being questioned, Ukraine is being pressured, experienced military leaders are being removed and troops are patrolling American streets. Trump seems to have harsher words for Canada and our European allies than he does for Putin. If I were sitting in Moscow watching all of this, I would certainly wonder whether someone in the White House had been compromised.
I am not saying Donald Trump is a Russian agent or that Putin has something on him because I cannot prove that. Trump has sent weapons to Ukraine, pressured NATO countries to spend more on defense and imposed sanctions on Russia. I am not ignoring those facts. What I am saying is that Putin may not need secret information or some hidden financial arrangement. Trump's ego, his anger, his need for praise and his reaction to anyone who tells him no are out there for the entire world to see. A former KGB officer such as Putin would know how to work with that.
Putin may not have to give Trump instructions. He may already know what Trump is likely to do. Russia cannot defeat our military from the outside, but it can watch while we weaken it ourselves, walk away from allies and turn against one another. Not one Russian soldier has to set foot here. We could end America's 250-year run ourselves, waving flags the entire time and calling it patriotism.
Are we going to recognize what is happening before we hand away everything generations before us fought and died to protect? I don't know about you, but from where I am standing, it sure looks like there is a puppet master. The only question is who is pulling the strings."