WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s senior military leadership on Tuesday branded the riot Jan. 6 at the Capitol “sedition and insurrection” and admonished troops to heed their charge to protect and defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
The extraordinary memo to all active duty and reserve troops left no doubt that the military’s top brass considered last week’s attack on the Capitol to be a criminal act and counter to military values and their oaths. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed the memo along with seven other senior leaders.
“We witnessed actions inside the Capitol building that were inconsistent with the rule of law,” the chiefs wrote. “The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection.
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The chiefs closed by noting that Biden will be inaugurated Jan. 20 and called on troops to remain focused on their missions.
Echoing John Burns: From the JCS website:
"Today, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have no executive authority to command combatant forces. The issue of executive authority was clearly resolved by the Goldwater-Nichols DOD Reorganization Act of 1986: "The Secretaries of the Military Departments shall assign all forces under their jurisdiction to unified and specified combatant commands to perform missions assigned to those commands..."; the chain of command "runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense; and from the Secretary of Defense to the commander of the combatant command."
