“We Are Retired Generals and Admirals. Trump’s Actions on Jan. 6 Were a Dereliction of Duty.”

Sobering N.Y. Times guest essay, especially the part about how command-and-control essentially broke down because, while it was understandable that Vice President Pence attempted to deploy the National Guard to protect Congress when President Trump refused to do so, the military would not obey Pence’s order:

Given the urgent need to secure the Capitol, Mr. Pence’s request was reasonable. Yet the vice president has no role in the chain of command unless specifically acting under the president’s authority because of illness or incapacitation, and therefore cannot lawfully issue orders to the military. Members of Congress, who also pleaded for military assistance as the mob laid siege to the Capitol, are in the same category. In the end, the National Guard deployed not in response to those pleas but under lawful orders issued by the acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller.

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