USMC Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler

We probably owe him our freedom

In 1934, we came closer than we’d like to think to losing our freedom. A military coup, plotted at the behest of America’s richest industrialists and media moguls, was being plotted against President Roosevelt in order to stop his New Deal. The plan was to mobilize the American Legion, whose leadership was packed with conservatives, as part of an army of 500,000 men to march to Washington and pressure FDR into resigning. The plan, inspired by the "Bonus Army" march during the Hoover Administration, required among other things the backing of key media figures to ensure that the plotters had complete spin control, as well as a charismatic figure around whom the public could rally. The figure the plotters picked was retired Marine Corps major general Smedley Butler, who was a hero for his bravery during World War One. That was a mistake, as General Butler was an honest and principled man; he played along with the plotters just long enough to get a feel for how deep the plot went, then took the news straight to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Unfortunately, then as now, the Democrats in power were too lenient, or too awed at the prospect of sentencing members of the DuPont, Morgan and Mellon families. (It’s also rumored, as a BBC Radio 4 documentary states, that Roosevelt was focused on getting the New Deal passed, and offered leniency in exchange for Wall Street’s dropping its opposition to his programs.) Only the persons who had personally tried to recruit Butler were actually punished, and the event was soon forgotten; Butler was painted by the press as a crank, an image he unwittingly reinforced when he, as a veteran of several American wars of choice, came out against getting involved in fighting Hitler because he feared that it was just another war being waged on the behalf of the titans of industry. He died in 1940, a figure of scorn, even though he was at the time the most decorated Marine in the entire history of the Corps, and had nearly been made Commandant a decade earlier.

If this all sounds vaguely familiar to you, it’s because this incident, combined with the rumored coup plotted against President Kennedy by US Air Force general Curtis LeMay (LeMay was angry with JFK because he wanted to nuke Cuba and Kennedy wouldn’t let him), was an inspiration for the novel and film Seven Days in May.

It’s all coming to mind to me because of this particular story (CNN and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, via my co-blogger Charles at Mercury Rising) :

A military judge Thursday refused to delay proceedings against the accused mastermind of the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole despite President Obama’s call for a temporary halt to trials of suspected terrorists.

Obama ordered a 120-day delay of pending cases at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on his first day in office, requiring prosecutors to seek delays in the 14 active cases before military commissions there.

But the judge, Col. James Pohl, refused the government’s request for a delay and ordered arraignment for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri to go ahead as scheduled February 9.

As Charles points out, this stinks to high heaven, for several reasons: 1) al-Nashiri was waterboarded (the tapes were destroyed); 2) the case uses military commissions which are unconstitutional and inconsistent with the Geneva accords; 3) Obama issued an Executive Order, and Col. Pohl is giving him the middle finger.

If Colonel Pohl had tried this against Bush, he would have been busted down to Captain (if not worse) so fast his head would spin. But Charles and I both suspect his actions have approval at high levels in the military, which is not content with botching occupations and wants to get into the judicial business, if only to cover up its many, erm, indiscretions. (The repeated insubordination of General Raymond T. Odierno, backed up by prominent Capitol Hill Republicans like John McCain, only reinforces my suspcions here.)

Now, there might not be anything to my suspicions. But it won’t hurt to shine a good strong light in a few dark corners and see which cockroaches start scurrying.