MACKUBIN OWENS: The perils of praetorianism.

From the time of Augustus Caesar until Constantine, the Roman emperor was protected by a corps of soldiers known as the Praetorian Guard. Over time, the Praetorians became the real power in Rome, appointing and deposing emperors at will.

In our time, praetorianism has come to mean despotic military rule, something associated with countries in which the army is the real power behind the government. Praetorianism would seem to be incompatible with republican government, although the attempted coup against President Charles de Gaulle in 1961 arose from a praetorian bent on the part of the French officers who sought to depose him over of his intention to grant independence to Algeria.

It is troubling to note that when it comes to President Trump, many people who purport to be defenders of healthy U.S. civil-military relations have adopted what can only be called a praetorian view. The most recent examples have come in the wake of his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria against the advice of the military or “without consulting the Pentagon.” I happen to believe the decision was a bad one but the idea that the president is always obligated to accept military advice flies in the face of the meaning of civilian control of the military.

But the apparent allure of anti-Trump praetorianism can be traced back to the beginning of his presidency. The most extreme example was articulated by the well-respected Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks, a senior Pentagon appointee during the Obama presidency and author of “How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything.”

Commenting in Foreign Policy, she wrote that Trump’s “first week as president has made it all too clear” that “he is as crazy as everyone feared” and that one “possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”

She continued that, for the first time, she could “imagine plausible scenarios in which senior military officials might simply tell the president: ‘No, sir. We’re not doing that.’” This is not only praetorianism but an invitation to a military coup, something that should shock anyone who defends republican government.

Of course there is something about Trump that causes otherwise reasonable people to take extreme positions.

Yes, there is. Or maybe they were never as reasonable as it seemed.

Say, did I mention I have a paper on military coups?