A sr military official told me this morning: "I can't underscore the importance of the message sent yesterday from the Joint Chiefs of Staff ...

" ... It might not change the hard-core believers. Those who are deeply radicalized can't be reached. But it will be heard by the middle."

Part of that message: "the U.S. military will ... remain fully committed to protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

The full message on the Capitol Riot to US troops from the Joint Chiefs of Staff can be found here: https://news.usni.org/2021/01/12/message-from-joint-chiefs-on-u-s-capitol-riot

A military spouse got in touch with me this morning after seeing this thread.

Her thoughts: "There seems to be a significant number of USMC officer spouses who do not see anything wrong with what happened at the Capitol and did not like that JCS message."

She said, "I’m concerned that the higher-ups may not realize that the 'middle' they’re talking about doesn’t actually exist."

Of course, it's important to remember that the US military is not homogenous.

For example, another military spouse tells me she saw "several spouse profile pics with RBG tributes earlier this year."

But the mil spouse was worried enough to reach out, telling me, "I worry that too many people in leadership positions don’t fully understand how honest so many Americans think Fox News and Newsmax and Trump are."