The Seditious Six poison the ranks

American  Thinker 

Much has been written about the brazen display of political theater offered up by the so-called “Seditious Six”. What began as a performative act of resistance has spiraled into a cascade of investigations, threats, and revelations exposing the profound lack of wisdom in their actions — and the grave dangers they pose to military morale, good order, and discipline.

The video’s fallout was swift and severe. President Trump condemned it on Truth Social as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” — a hyperbolic reference to historical treason penalties, later clarified by the White House as non-literal. Legal experts point to 18 U.S.C. § 2384, which criminalizes seditious conspiracy with up to 20 years in prison, and 18 U.S.C. § 2387, prohibiting interference with military loyalty. Senator Slotkin (D-MI) announced on X that the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division had opened an inquiry into her and the group, framing it as Trump’s “weaponizing” of federal agencies.

Yet, as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche noted, any probe hinges on intent — precisely the murky territory the Democrats entered by sowing doubt about lawful commands without citing specifics.

Alarming repercussions are emerging from the ranks. A JAG officer’s X posts illustrate the video’s toxic ripple effects. Echoing the Democrats’ rhetoric, the JAG officer questioned Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA) policy 175-25 — a policy disqualifying those with gender dysphoria from service — declaring she’d refuse orders she “disagrees with”.

This is a direct erosion of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which presumes orders lawful unless clearly illegal. The Seditious Six, by empowering subjective defiance, have invited chaos, potentially fracturing unit cohesion, domestic deployments, and Caribbean operations against small-boat threats.

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) — a retired Navy captain and Space Shuttle commander — doubled down with a defiant X post touting his service record, from combat missions to NASA’s Columbia recovery.  “I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies,” he wrote, dismissing the scrutiny as intimidation. On Monday, the Department of War responded by launching a misconduct probe into Kelly under UCMJ and 10 U.S.C. § 688, which allows recalling retirees for court-martial. They emphasized: “Military retirees remain subject to the UCMJ… Orders are presumed to be lawful. A service member’s personal philosophy does not justify… disobedience.”

Enter War Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose withering reply exposed Kelly’s lack of discipline in the most literal sense. Analyzing Kelly’s selfie, Hegseth tweeted this:

It’s a humiliating detail: a veteran lecturing on duty while flouting basic protocol. Hegseth underscored the irony — the Seditious Six, invoking their oaths, now embody the very indiscipline they risk fostering.

Further escalating the drama was Kelly’s Arizona colleague, Senator Ruben Gallego, a former Marine who lashed out in a profanity-laced video and CNN interview. Said Gallego, “This is f-ing insane… Secretary Hegseth, all these guys, f you guys.” But his rhetoric veered into outright threats against investigators. “Donald Trump is going to be gone in a couple of years… If you’re part of the military that is going after sitting senators… there will be consequences, without a doubt.” Gallego suggested officers would “look over their shoulders” post-Trump, lacking “protection,” before adding a wink: “Follow the Constitution...and you’ll be fine.”

One author decried this as “tainting the inquiry,” intimidating those duty-bound to probe potential UCMJ violations. Gallego’s Marine background makes his words especially galling — a leader threatening reprisals against peers enforcing the rules he once swore to uphold.

All of this reveals the Seditious Six’s profound miscalculation. We live in an era of heightened national security — urban deployments, strains at the border, and global hotspots — and their video doesn’t “hold power accountable”, it invites mutiny by blurring lawful obedience with personal politics. As the JAG posts show, it’s already manifesting: officers citing it to justify insubordination on policies like gender standards. JD Vance has called it “by definition illegal”. 

The wisdom deficit is stark. These are elected veterans, entrusted with guiding the next generation of service members, yet they’ve prioritized partisan posturing over the chain of command that preserved their own careers. The resulting probes could end in courts-martial, threats that chill military justice, and a precedent that good order hangs by a thread of individual whim. In uniform or out, true patriots know: undermining discipline doesn’t defend the Constitution — it endangers the republic it protects.