Will Top Pentagon Commanders run from a fight?

Trolling Facebook, I came upon an article titled “Top Pentagon Commanders: “We’ll Quit If Trump Becomes Commander-In-Chief” written by Juan Wilder for Greenville Gazette.com and it got me to wondering if this would be the best example for those top commanders to display to those junior officers and enlisted men/women had Donald Trump indeed won the White House.  In the article he reports that; “Much of the recent ‘foreign policy debate’ was spent by Donald Trump declaring ignorantly how the military will be extra-great when he gets into power, and criticizing President Obama for weakening the Nation’s defense… even though this isn’t true.  Donald Trump announced that he would make this nation the strongest nation in the world once again and continually protect all that our country represents. He tried to facilitate fear and weave some distorted perception that the United States is weak, powerless, inefficient, and useless at the moment. He also criticized the defense strategy and persecuted Muslim Americans for their faith and closes its borders for numerous immigrants.  On the other hand, if you ask the Pentagon commanders if they think that the plan of Donald Trump will succeed, they tell a different story from Trump’s. A number of leaders in the Pentagon have revealed that they plan to quit or retire if Donald gets into power.  His plans are utterly outrageous and would result, not only in the needless deaths of hundreds and possibly, thousands more Americans dying, but also in national foreign policy degrading into something very, very dangerous.”  Now while some may agree and I truly can understand their positions, it still deserves to be asked if this is the best example that they could set for those who look toward them for leadership and guidance. 

We talk so much about how dysfunctional and misguided many other countries are when lead strictly by one group, one person or by the military alone yet we would sit idly by and allow this to happen to the greatest country ever created makes me think that Americans could be not so blind and lazy to let it happen here.  Imagine the vacuum that would create and the open door it would allow Trump to promote his own top leaders to fill those positions.  Would the now top commanders step aside and allow those whose interest in strictly personal and never beneficial to this nation as a whole to its citizens?  In my personal belief sticking around would be the best course of action for these top commanders because it will do two things.

The first is proving once and for all Americans never run from a fight but runs toward it.  The next is they would truly be the only line of defense between a man whose ideas are not thing more than primitive at best and the citizens that they took an oath to serve and protect from enemies foreign and domestic.  Granted they may not be able to do much but to show courage in the face of overwhelming odds is what has made our military the greatest in the world and the most feared.  Notice, if you will, those who claim that they wish to fight the American military are often those who will never have to face the might of the American military.  It’s often those who will be hiding in some bunker or a very deep hole getting others to risk their very lives. But the most important thing to remember is if these top commanders do quit or resign what would their legacy truly be?  Would it be that when called on to make the ultimate sacrifice for a nation they claim to love, they tucked tail and ran leaving those who trusted that they would always be there to fend for themselves?  Is that the message our military was built to leave to this nation and even worse to the world?