General Allen’s call to duty: Saluting Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton on Thursday received the strong endorsement of retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, who commanded the war in Afghanistan and more recently was President Obama’s special envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.
Flanked by a wall of retired flag officers from all of the military’s services and younger veterans of the wars of 9/11, the martial display served as a kind of protective armor for a presidential candidate whom Republican nominee Donald Trump has savaged as weak and feckless on national security.
“We stand before you tonight to endorse Hillary Clinton for president of the United States of America,” Allen said of Clinton, who will claim the Democratic nomination later Thursday night. “With her as our commander in chief, America will continue to lead in this volatile world. We will oppose and resist tyranny as we defeat evil.”
His booming oratory hearkened back to his days at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; back then he could sometimes be found at dawn standing alone in a cavernous auditorium reciting word for word an upcoming lecture, his stentorian voice echoing through the darkened hallways. But the message tonight from Allen was not just about military might; it was as much a statement about the importance of maintaining the military as an instrument of American values, “the shining example of America at out very best,” as Allen put it. Without naming Trump, he blasted the celebrity real estate mogul’s threat to revive “waterboarding and a lot worse” and to kill the families of ISIS terrorists. “Our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture, and they will not be ordered to engage in murder or carry out other illegal activities,” Allen thundered.
Indeed, it was these pronouncements from Trump that persuaded Allen, who had never before been involved in partisan politics, to endorse Clinton. Allen, according to a source familiar with his thinking, was profoundly offended that Trump seemed to believe that he could simply order members of the military to engage in illegal activities. It is an article of faith — one that Allen and his fellow members of the military have recently discussed — that it would be their constitutional duty and moral obligation to disobey such an order. And it is the reason he chose to come to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“This is one of the most consequential elections we’ve seen in our living memory, frankly,” Allen said earlier today in an interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. During the speech he said, “we must not, we could not stay on the sidelines.”
In keeping with a central theme of the convention, Allen framed the election as a choice between hope and fear. “This election can carry us into a future of unity and hope,” Allen intoned, “or to a dark place of discord and fear.”
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