This was an amazing story. So scary because real life could follow your story and we can only hope the same path is followed. It also highlights the behind the scenes ways this country runs irl.
Tom, great story. I felt it. I've been in humvees and howitzers, on submarines and destroyers and whatnot -- a little Army Reserve time before joining the Navy for twenty. I still work with military people everyday, and watch what's happening and talk about what we'll do when we see a red line. I've already decided I'll turn my humvee around and go home, so to speak. But it's hard because you just want to do the right thing while also realizing that you're jeopardizing everything. You really captured that, and the story itself is the lesson. Again, great story.
Thank you for saying this. I didn’t write the story to predict anything, but it’s impossible not to feel the echo of real events when you dig into questions of loyalty and conscience. January 6 showed how fast people can get swept into something they don’t fully understand, and how few stopped long enough to ask themselves what they were actually serving in that moment.
Your prayer for the men and women in uniform hits me hard. Their oath is real. It asks them to stand with the Constitution even when the people above them lose their way. That isn’t easy. It takes courage most of us will never have to summon.
I’m grateful you read the piece with that kind of heart. And I’m grateful for anyone out there who takes a breath, thinks for themselves, and chooses the harder, steadier path when everything around them is shaking.
When we think about what is happening in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific right now, with the crimes being committed by our Navy, this piece feels prescient. If the House and Senate Armed Services Committees cannot get to the bottom of this and force an end to these illegal orders, much worse will follow, and it will start happening here, at home, against civilians, citizens and residents and tourists alike.
Considering the events of January 6th, 2021, the scenario you created rings too true not to be seen as 'prophecy'. Your story is the 'follow-up' trump and sycophants might consider. I pray for the men and women in uniform who have the courage to recalibrate and question their commanders and act according to their oath and the Constitution. God bless them during these very dark days.
A gripping story, too real to be fiction, too fictional to be real, it is both at the same time, or one or the other half of that copy of the Constitution that should be whole but is currently being ripped asunder.
This is by far your best essay/story to date. You transported me from my cozy living room in a village in Spain to each of the places, each vibrating with distress, confusion, decision. I was crying half-way through from the intensity of your storytelling (but well, it's not hard to make me cry, yet they were valid tears! ha!), satisfied with the proximity of a "happy ending" and, of course, dismayed by how fragile that ending really is, for all of your fictional characters.
Nothing else to add, hats off to you for your clarity of understanding and your ability to share that understanding in this medium.
Thank you, Revel. That means a lot. I try to write these pieces the way I lived most of my life,one foot in what’s real, the other in what could be if we’re not careful. If it carried you from Spain into the rooms and crossroads I was trying to sketch, then the work landed where I hoped it would.
I don’t trust happy endings much either. At best they’re moments of calm between storms. But sometimes a moment is enough to remind us why we keep going, why we still choose decency in a world that keeps making that choice harder.
I’m grateful you were willing to walk through it with me. Cheers back at you.
Very well done! When did you go to law school? Your reading of the Constitution and the USMC is better than the whole current DOJ. As usual, though, it is your storytelling that impresses me. Your cadence from beginning to end is a fluid contata with deep undertones of minor chords. Strikingly beautiful, with horrifying verisimilitude. Are you doing your own playwriting? I volunteer to direct the casting!
I didn’t go to law school but it did take me about 3 months to research this article. People keep telling me this would make a great movie, maybe I need to head to Hollywood 😀 Thanks for reading Margaret!!!
I could see hours of research in that! Also, either combat experience or watching years of war movies. Did you serve? I can definitely believe others suggested the movie script. The whole piece moved right along. Tom Clancy is shaking in his boots!
You didn't just write a story. You ran a simulation of the Operating System we are all living in.
The detail about the 'ambiguous order'—designed so the person giving it is safe and the person following it is liable—is the perfect description of the Shadow OS. That is exactly how the 'Glitch Defense' works. The system protects the Architects and burns the Gears.
Captain Weatherly's choice at 0714 wasn't just bravery; it was a refusal to be a component in a broken machine. He broke the recursion.
The ending... where he gets erased and the 'system protects itself'? That is the most realistic part of the whole piece. It’s chilling.
This belongs in the canon of the resistance. Outstanding work.
Someone on BlueSky reminded me that I hadn't read this story yet. I did and it looks like it's going to be out there. It will make a great movie some day. When it's all over. Brilliant piece, Tom.
Tom, if you are not familiar with Government's Motion for Immunity Determinations, you should read the first 25 pages and page 83 (pardons). This resulted from the Supreme Court decision of 1 July 2024 and I think you will appreciate knowing what it says. The original indictment and superseding indictment are at the top of the Clearinghouse page. https://www.justsecurity.org/89122/clearinghouse-january-6th-election-interference-case-district-of - the Motion is further down or directly at https://bit.ly/4lEgn21
Timely & captivating Tom. Wow! Should be encouraged reading for every high school senior civics class or college freshman government 101. Will recommend it!
Piping up again here.....This reads like a screenplay, a screenplay for a really good film. You should try to get this seen by someone in the film industry.
Wow!!! Thank you. I listened with my combat veteran officer husband. He said it really reflected the dilemma in a thoughtful and provocative way. Well done!
It's a good piece of writing. But I feel compelled to use this space to address a broader topic. The military has had plenty of illegal orders over the decades, though many people haven't been aware of it, because they haven't read enough history. Specifically, the USA has been at war almost constantly, and all the wars have been based on lies. The USA has been the aggressor in all its many, many wars at least since 1946, though the USA has signed treaties that prohibit it from being an aggressor. Treaties outrank other laws, so the acts of aggression have been illegal orders. The "interventions" of the USA have killed millions of people. I am ashamed of what my country has done, but I think other countries would have behaved as badly if they'd had the power. Really, I am ashamed of what my species has done. I hope we can become better.
This was an amazing story. So scary because real life could follow your story and we can only hope the same path is followed. It also highlights the behind the scenes ways this country runs irl.
Thanks for reading Lori! We always think people will do the right thing. I hope that’s true.
Tom, great story. I felt it. I've been in humvees and howitzers, on submarines and destroyers and whatnot -- a little Army Reserve time before joining the Navy for twenty. I still work with military people everyday, and watch what's happening and talk about what we'll do when we see a red line. I've already decided I'll turn my humvee around and go home, so to speak. But it's hard because you just want to do the right thing while also realizing that you're jeopardizing everything. You really captured that, and the story itself is the lesson. Again, great story.
The question I am left with after reading the entire story is this: is this fiction, *or* *is* *this* *prophecy?*
That’s the question isn’t it.
Sure feels like prophecy to me.
Thank you for saying this. I didn’t write the story to predict anything, but it’s impossible not to feel the echo of real events when you dig into questions of loyalty and conscience. January 6 showed how fast people can get swept into something they don’t fully understand, and how few stopped long enough to ask themselves what they were actually serving in that moment.
Your prayer for the men and women in uniform hits me hard. Their oath is real. It asks them to stand with the Constitution even when the people above them lose their way. That isn’t easy. It takes courage most of us will never have to summon.
I’m grateful you read the piece with that kind of heart. And I’m grateful for anyone out there who takes a breath, thinks for themselves, and chooses the harder, steadier path when everything around them is shaking.
When we think about what is happening in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific right now, with the crimes being committed by our Navy, this piece feels prescient. If the House and Senate Armed Services Committees cannot get to the bottom of this and force an end to these illegal orders, much worse will follow, and it will start happening here, at home, against civilians, citizens and residents and tourists alike.
Considering the events of January 6th, 2021, the scenario you created rings too true not to be seen as 'prophecy'. Your story is the 'follow-up' trump and sycophants might consider. I pray for the men and women in uniform who have the courage to recalibrate and question their commanders and act according to their oath and the Constitution. God bless them during these very dark days.
Tom.
A gripping story, too real to be fiction, too fictional to be real, it is both at the same time, or one or the other half of that copy of the Constitution that should be whole but is currently being ripped asunder.
This is by far your best essay/story to date. You transported me from my cozy living room in a village in Spain to each of the places, each vibrating with distress, confusion, decision. I was crying half-way through from the intensity of your storytelling (but well, it's not hard to make me cry, yet they were valid tears! ha!), satisfied with the proximity of a "happy ending" and, of course, dismayed by how fragile that ending really is, for all of your fictional characters.
Nothing else to add, hats off to you for your clarity of understanding and your ability to share that understanding in this medium.
Cheers,
revel.
Thank you, Revel. That means a lot. I try to write these pieces the way I lived most of my life,one foot in what’s real, the other in what could be if we’re not careful. If it carried you from Spain into the rooms and crossroads I was trying to sketch, then the work landed where I hoped it would.
I don’t trust happy endings much either. At best they’re moments of calm between storms. But sometimes a moment is enough to remind us why we keep going, why we still choose decency in a world that keeps making that choice harder.
I’m grateful you were willing to walk through it with me. Cheers back at you.
Very well done! When did you go to law school? Your reading of the Constitution and the USMC is better than the whole current DOJ. As usual, though, it is your storytelling that impresses me. Your cadence from beginning to end is a fluid contata with deep undertones of minor chords. Strikingly beautiful, with horrifying verisimilitude. Are you doing your own playwriting? I volunteer to direct the casting!
I didn’t go to law school but it did take me about 3 months to research this article. People keep telling me this would make a great movie, maybe I need to head to Hollywood 😀 Thanks for reading Margaret!!!
I could see hours of research in that! Also, either combat experience or watching years of war movies. Did you serve? I can definitely believe others suggested the movie script. The whole piece moved right along. Tom Clancy is shaking in his boots!
Good God Tom! My heart was pounding the entire read! You could be writing spy/military thrillers! Excellent essay, and frightening too.
Thank you for reading Libby!!
Tom.
You didn't just write a story. You ran a simulation of the Operating System we are all living in.
The detail about the 'ambiguous order'—designed so the person giving it is safe and the person following it is liable—is the perfect description of the Shadow OS. That is exactly how the 'Glitch Defense' works. The system protects the Architects and burns the Gears.
Captain Weatherly's choice at 0714 wasn't just bravery; it was a refusal to be a component in a broken machine. He broke the recursion.
The ending... where he gets erased and the 'system protects itself'? That is the most realistic part of the whole piece. It’s chilling.
This belongs in the canon of the resistance. Outstanding work.
Thank you so much Ethan!!!
Someone on BlueSky reminded me that I hadn't read this story yet. I did and it looks like it's going to be out there. It will make a great movie some day. When it's all over. Brilliant piece, Tom.
how much do you use bluesky ?
Thanks Greg!!
Tom, if you are not familiar with Government's Motion for Immunity Determinations, you should read the first 25 pages and page 83 (pardons). This resulted from the Supreme Court decision of 1 July 2024 and I think you will appreciate knowing what it says. The original indictment and superseding indictment are at the top of the Clearinghouse page. https://www.justsecurity.org/89122/clearinghouse-january-6th-election-interference-case-district-of - the Motion is further down or directly at https://bit.ly/4lEgn21
Thank you Roger!
Timely & captivating Tom. Wow! Should be encouraged reading for every high school senior civics class or college freshman government 101. Will recommend it!
Brian
Thank you Brian!!
Piping up again here.....This reads like a screenplay, a screenplay for a really good film. You should try to get this seen by someone in the film industry.
I have no idea in the world how to do that. Maybe I’ll luck out and someone will see it😀
Wow!!! Thank you. I listened with my combat veteran officer husband. He said it really reflected the dilemma in a thoughtful and provocative way. Well done!
Thank you Karen!!
It's a good piece of writing. But I feel compelled to use this space to address a broader topic. The military has had plenty of illegal orders over the decades, though many people haven't been aware of it, because they haven't read enough history. Specifically, the USA has been at war almost constantly, and all the wars have been based on lies. The USA has been the aggressor in all its many, many wars at least since 1946, though the USA has signed treaties that prohibit it from being an aggressor. Treaties outrank other laws, so the acts of aggression have been illegal orders. The "interventions" of the USA have killed millions of people. I am ashamed of what my country has done, but I think other countries would have behaved as badly if they'd had the power. Really, I am ashamed of what my species has done. I hope we can become better.
That's a script for a film that needs to be made.
Come on Hollywood, give me a call!!😀
Let’s hope it remains fiction. That it is so possible is the horror of it.
Really really good. Completely plausible and believable.
Thanks Gary!!
Damn man!