A writer linked to a neocon think tank who formerly worked for the CIA’s Radio Free Europe took to the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday and said if Donald Trump wins the election, a military coup may be in order to remove him from office.

“Americans viewing the recent failed coup attempt in Turkey as some exotic foreign news story—the latest, violent yet hardly unusual political development to occur in a region constantly beset by turmoil—should pause to consider that the prospect of similar instability would not be unfathomable in this country if Donald Trump were to win the presidency,” writes James Kirchick.

He then imagines Trump doing “something stupid, illegal or irrational” in foreign policy and refusing to back down when faced with opposition by military brass. “In that case, our military men and women, who swear to uphold the Constitution and a civilian chain of command, would be forced to choose between obeying the law and serving the wishes of someone who has explicitly expressed his utter lack of respect for it,” Kirchick writes.

The military might then “pull a reverse-Truman” and overthrow the president. Kirchick’s “reverse-Truman” is a reference to President Truman’s firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who advocated bombing China.

Kirchick then declares such a scenario would be unimaginable under Hillary Clinton, who is the preferred candidate of the neocons:

If this scenario sounds implausible, consider that Trump has normalized so many once-outrageous things—from open racism to blatant lying. Needless to say, such dystopian situations are unimaginable under a President Hillary Clinton, who, whatever her faults, would never contemplate ordering a bombing run or—heaven forbid—a nuclear strike on a country just because its leader slighted her small hands at a summit. Rubio might detest her, but he cannot honestly say that Clinton, a former secretary of State, should not be trusted with the nation’s nuclear codes.

Kirchick concludes by saying the American people must make sure Donald Trump does not enter the White House. “Voters must stop him before the military has to.”

Murderous Neocon Double Standards

Legality and constitutionality, of course, are a two-way street when debated by neocons and other advocates of the warfare state. The invasion of Iraq forced on America by Kirchick’s confederates was unquestionably unconstitutional. Under the War Powers Clause of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution Congress must issue a formal declaration of war. Instead, the Bush neocons paraded a fallacious war resolution.

“The Iraq war is in direct violation of the United States Constitution. The president and the members of Congress who voted for that October resolution should be held accountable for sending this nation into an illegal war,” writes John C. Bonifaz.

Likewise, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s attack on Libya was unconstitutional.

“By taking part in a war unrelated to American defense on the basis of a U.N. Security Council resolution, without asking the House and the Senate for a joint resolution as the basis of his authority, President Obama has validated the fears of the critics that U.S. participation in the United Nations would informally amend the Constitution, by transferring authority to initiate all kinds of wars from Congress to the president,” writes Michael Lind.

In short, the neocons employ a double standard when it comes to waging war. Hillary Clinton is guilty of waging an illegal war, but this is irrelevant to the neocons because they approve of what Obama and Clinton did in Libya and Syria. Over a million dead Iraqis and 30,000 slaughtered Libyans—and the wholesale destruction of Syria—are irrelevant so long as neocon policy goals are accomplished.

The Los Angeles Times notes Kirchick is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative. The organization’s board of directors consists of seasoned neocons and advocates of endless war: former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric S. Edelman, Dan Senor, Editor of The Weekly Standard William Kristol and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Robert Kagan.

Kristol and Kagan were directors of the neocon Project for the New American Century. PNAC called for violently overthrowing Saddam Hussein and portrayed him as a threat to the United States, one of a number of cynical lies used as a pretext in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

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