Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me

(stripes.com)

109 points | by petethomas 2 hours ago

4 comments

  • system7rocks 1 hour ago
    This is deeply disturbing. The terrible, incoherent messaging and strategy around the Iran war (unapproved by Congress) is connected. This is an administration that is seeking less freedom, not more. What entity would sue on behalf of the ombudsman?
    • deepsun 57 minutes ago
      It cannot be "unapproved by Congress".

      A US president does not have authority to start a war, Congress has, according to Constitution. The president only serves as a Commander in Chief.

      So at any point Congress can stop any military action issuing an immediate ruling preventing the president doing anything. If our congressmen don't do that it means they approve it.

      It's our, USA, war, not Trump's war. Because we elected the congressmen.

      • xnx 50 minutes ago
        > If our congressmen don't do that it means they approve it.

        These needs to be repeated everywhere until people understand it. Same situation with tariffs.

      • user3939382 36 minutes ago
        They passed a bill saying in 60 days stop without further approval. Admin said days we don’t attack dont count toward the 60…
        • jauntywundrkind 1 minute ago
          Congress voted to stop counting days to allow the tariffs to keep going without having to actually act on it. These people are fundamentally breakers of reality, aren't just unserious: they are anti serious. RFK and all of this is a perpetrated act to be grossly anti reality, to defy all reason. No reality supports any of what's happening, there's no reality where any of that GOP agenda can win, so they have declared war on reality. https://www.ntu.org/publications/detail/congress-should-not-...

          This stopped being alternate realities a while ago, as it became a collective project to form anti-realities.

      • AlexCoventry 40 minutes ago
        Yes, if this turns into a mass famine/deindustrialization, Americans are going to own it the way Germans owned the holocaust.
        • LNSY 2 minutes ago
          We've already taken 600,000 lives by being complicit with foreign national Elon Musk's genocide in Africa. Most of them children.
  • niemandhier 51 minutes ago
    Historically the codified office of the Ombudsman came to Sweden after the Swedish King had to search refuge in Turkey and observed a similar position there.

    I love that story, shows you that the world always was quite small and that what we perceive as progressive and backward countries is just a matter of time.

    • gostsamo 33 minutes ago
      Can you give some more context? I looked into Wikipedia and the relevant text there is giving different vibe:

      > Charles XII was in exile in Turkey and needed a representative in Sweden to ensure that judges and civil servants acted in accordance with the laws and with their duties. If they did not do so, the Supreme Ombudsman had the right to prosecute them for negligence.

  • Animats 3 minutes ago
    Trump also fired the Immigration Detention Ombudsman.[1]

    [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

  • timfsu 1 hour ago
    Did not know this was a thing, kudos to her for speaking out!
    • J0nL 29 minutes ago
      You don't get that job without being the type of person who will only ever respond to coercion attempts with an equal amount of indigance. The sole reason for the position to exist is to act as a canary in a coalmine so to speak

      She even admits she was due to stand down at the end of the year, they could have just waited her out. Instead it seems her calling a spade a spade was just too intolerable for them to bare

      If that's all it takes to provoke the desired reaction from them it doesn't bode well at all. It's no wonder they were so easily led into a war with Iran on a leash