OPINION:
Mere resistance to President Trump’s agenda is no longer enough for some radical Democrats. The latest organized effort to undermine the president eerily resembles a cloak-and-dagger regime change operation from the Cold War.
Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat, isn’t backing down from his participation in a video urging U.S. service members to “refuse illegal orders” from Mr. Trump. Appearing on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, he dodged attempts to clarify which directives he thinks violate the law. Instead, he filibustered when asked whether he would have fired on the suspicious speedboats off the Venezuelan coast.
“People can tell the difference, should be able to tell the difference, between something that is unlawful and something that is lawful. And if I was ever given an unlawful order, I would refuse — I would, you know, maybe, if you have the time, you can certainly go to the judge advocate generals, the lawyers, and have a discussion about it,” the former Navy combat pilot said.
Sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of troops is a classic technique used in covert missions to oust inconvenient foreign leaders. Fostering instability in the incumbent regime creates an opening for the opposition to seize the moment. They might act with, or sometimes without, explicit direction.
Win Without Wars, a shadowy group bankrolled by all the usual far-left suspects, wants to tell soldiers what to do. It had a billboard prepared outside the gates of Fort Bragg, the Army base in North Carolina, just in time for the controversy to take center stage.
The advertisement asks, “Did you join the military just to pull security for ICE?” The outfit’s website then directs soldiers to use encrypted messaging applications to get in touch to receive further instructions without tipping off their supervisors.
Rep. Eugene Vindman, Virginia Democrat, also said what Mr. Kelly left unsaid. Responding to War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s command to fire on the drug boats, he wrote on X: “Let there be no doubt, you will be held accountable along with those that executed your illegal order.”
Democrats are confident they will reclaim control of the House of Representatives after the midterms. Nothing would instill more fear and hesitation among military personnel and other federal employees than the prospect of being hauled before Congress for doing their job.
“I sit on the Armed Services Committee,” Mr. Kelly said. “We’re going to have an investigation. We’re going to have a public hearing. We’re going to put these folks under oath. And we’re going to find out what happens — happened. And then, there needs to be accountability.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, the former CIA officer who organized the congressional video celebrating disobedience, spoke to the Brookings Institution on Oct. 29. “It’s only a matter of time before things get worse. By my estimation, we are about two weeks away from a bloody incident that spirals out of control,” the Michigan Democrat said.
A little more than three weeks later, an Afghan refugee who worked on the CIA’s behalf for a decade as part of an elite team known as a “Zero Unit,” allegedly shot two National Guard members across from the White House, further straining morale.
Buying ads in the hope of fomenting mutiny is as reckless as contributing to what seems to be a structured destabilization campaign. If any sensible moderates remain in the Democratic Party, they ought to counsel their colleagues to step away from the brink.
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