军事委员会(Armed Services Committee)资深民主党参议员杰克·里德(Jack Reed)周日表示，唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)总统周五晚上对五角大楼高级领导人的清洗是对军队无党派性质的威胁。
“这是完全没有道理的。这些男人和女人都是优秀的专业人士。他们信守誓言，捍卫美国宪法美国。里德在接受美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)“本周”(This Week)联合主持人玛莎·拉达茨(Martha Raddatz)的独家采访时表示:“很明显，川普和(国防部长皮特·黑格斯)试图将国防部政治化，他们让卡什·帕特尔(Kash Patel)担任美国联邦调查局主任并不奇怪，他是一个党派人士，我认为他不尊重美国联邦调查局的中立传统。”。
“现在他们转向国防部，希望国防部的每个人都听命于总统，而不是宪法，”他说。"他们希望那里的每个人都听从吩咐去做，不管法律如何。"
王牌解雇参谋长联席会议主席CQ·布朗将军在周五晚上的一次有争议的行动中。除了布朗之外，政府还解雇了其他高级官员，包括海军最高上将、海军作战部长丽莎·弗兰切蒂。
这是首次有两名参谋长联席会议成员被终止职务。
在一篇社交媒体帖子中，特朗普表示，他将提名退役中将丹·“拉津”·凯恩担任参谋长联席会议主席，这必须得到参议院的确认。
参谋长联席会议是一个由高级军官组成的团体，他们是总统和国防部官员的最高军事顾问。参谋长联席会议是本着非政治化的理念成立的。按照设计，官员的四年任期与两位总统交叉。
里德说，清洗贬低了军队，尤其是解雇了三名高级军事律师。
“周末同样令人震惊的是解雇了所有的军方将领。如果你要违法，你要做的第一件事就是摆脱律师。因此，我们正面临着对我们军队价值观的非常危险的破坏，而且已经感受到了其影响，”他说。“人们质疑他们是否应该说，有才华的领导人，想知道他们是否应该出去。这是，这是，一个非常，非常严重的军队退化和军队政治化的开始。”
前美国陆军参谋长、曾在前总统乔治·w·布什和巴拉克·奥巴马手下任职的退役将军乔治·凯西(George Casey Jr .)指出，布朗的解职可能会使美国变得脆弱。
“在国内和国外都有很多事情发生的时候，这是非常不稳定的。凯西说:“当你解除这么多高级领导人的职务时，特别是在没有正当理由和给出正当理由的情况下，这在军队中造成了巨大的不确定性，在这个非常困难的时期，这对军队来说不是一件好事。”。
特朗普和国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯表示，他们将从军队中移除多样性、公平和包容性项目，赫格塞斯暗示，布朗的解雇是因为他参与了这些举措。
“这对我来说是一个问题，因为这些领导人遵循的是上届政府文职领导人的合法指令，而现在我们要让那些遵循另一届政府合法指令的领导人处于危险之中，并对他们进行惩罚。我的意思是，让我休息一下，”凯西说。
然而，尽管他不赞成政府的行动，凯西说，特朗普在他作为总统的权利范围内行事。他补充说，解雇应该有更好的解释。
“我可能不同意这些罢免的时机和所有事情，但这纯粹是总统的特权。那是他的，那是他的特权。他是武装部队的总司令，我们听从文职领导人的指示，”凯西说。
Democratic Sen. Reed: Trump's Pentagon purge is attempt to politicize the military
Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that President Donald Trump's Friday night purge of senior Pentagon leaders is a threat to the nonpartisan nature of the military.
"It was completely unjustified. These men and women were superb professionals. They were committed to their oath to defend the Constitution of theUnited States. And, apparently, what Trump and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth are trying to do is to politicize the Department of Defense, and it's not surprising they put Kash Patel as the FBI director, who is a partisan, who has no, I think, respect for the traditions of neutrality of the FBI," Reed said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
"And, now they've turned to DOD, and they want everyone in DOD beholden to the president, not to the Constitution," he said. "They want everyone there to do what they're told, regardless of the law."
TrumpfiredJoint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown in a controversial move Friday evening. In addition to Brown, the administration fired other senior officials, including the Navy's top admiral, Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti.
It was the first time two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have had their roles terminated.
In a social media post, Trump said he was nominating retired Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a group of senior uniformed leaders who serve as the top military advisers to the president and Department of Defense officials. The Joint Chiefs of Staff was created with the idea of it being apolitical. By design, officers' four-year terms intersect two presidents.
Reed said the purge degraded the military, especially the firing of three top military lawyers.
"What was also startling in the weekend was firing all the advocate generals of the military. If you're going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers. So we're looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military, and the repercussions are being felt already," he said. "People questioning whether they should say, talented leaders, wondering if they should get out. It is, it's, the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of the military and politicization of the military."
Retired Gen. George Casey Jr., a former U.S. Army chief of staff who served under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, pointed out that Brown's dismissal could leave the United States vulnerable.
"That's extremely destabilizing at a time that there's a lot going on domestically and a lot going on abroad. When you remove so many senior leaders, especially without justifying and giving due cause, it creates huge uncertainty in the ranks, and it just isn't a good thing for the military at a very difficult time," Casey said.
Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said they would remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from the military and Hegseth alluded that Brown's firing was because of his involvement in those initiatives.
"That's a problem for me, because these leaders were following the lawful directives of the civilian leaders of the past administration, and now we're going to put leaders in jeopardy and punish them for following lawful orders from another administration. I mean, give me a break," Casey said.
However, despite his disapproval of the administration's action, Casey said that Trump acted within his rights as president. He added that the firings should have been explained better.
"I may disagree with the timing and everything of these, of these removals, but it's purely, it is significantly within the president's prerogative. That's his, that's his prerogative. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and we follow the directives of, the, our civilian leaders," Casey said.
