Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.

 

10 September 2014

Mr. President, you are NOT! my commander in chief

In your address to the nation this evening on Islamic terrorism, you referred to yourself as “commander in chief” — twice — but not as the President of the United States. Nor did you even limit yourself as the commander in chief of the armed services of the United States. You spoke as the commander in chief of all Americans.

But you are not. According to Article II, Section 2, of the still in effect Constitution of the United States:

2.1 The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States;…

Flathead Memo note. When the Air Force was formed as a separate military service in 1947, the potential Article II problem was finessed in a one-page legal memorandum by acting Attorney General Harold I. Baynton.

Section 2 of Article II exists to establish civilian control of the armed forces, not to provide Presidents with the power to place civilians under military authority. But tonight, in the way you phrased your remarks, you asserted that you have that power:

As commander in chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people…

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Tonight, I ask for your support in carrying that leadership forward. I do so as a commander in chief who could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform — pilots who bravely fly in the face of danger above the Middle East and service members who support our partners on the ground.

Full text of speech.

When you speak to gatherings of our military services, it goes without saying that you are commander in chief — but above all you speak as the President of the United States and have no need to refer to yourself as commander in chief. In fact, you should not refer to yourself as commander in chief, for as President you must never speak as a military leader.

When in an address to the nation you refer to yourself as commander in chief, as you did tonight, you abdicate your constitutional responsibility to speak as President, and present yourself in the role of this nation’s ultimate military leader, a military leader with military authority over civilians and members of the service alike. That’s how military dictatorships begin.

You are President Obama, not Generalissimo Obama. Remember that — or you will find yourself impeached.