'Stunning': Retired Air Force colonel warns Trump plan could 'decimate' top military ranks

President-elect Donald Trump’s draft executive order that would allow him to purge military leaders stunned a retired Air Force colonel, who sounded the alarm during an interview Tuesday on the devastating effects the action could have on the U.S. military.

“It is stunning,” retired Col. Cedric Leighton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer during an appearance on his show, “The Situation Room.” Leighton, a CNN military analyst, began his remarks after Blitzer noted that the draft order coming out of Trump’s presidential transition team “is raising fresh concerns about the politicization of the U.S. military in the new Trump administration.”

Leighton told the host that the order would not only circumvent the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act – a law which, among other things, established rules for military promotions – but it would also “create a lot of problems.”

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“Not only for the officers' careers, but it would also, if it is implemented in the way we see it being reported now, it would potentially decimate the top ranks of the military,” Leighton told Blitzer. “And that could erode the quality of the military that we have, could erode the ability of our military to act in ways that the president would want it to act. So that would become, perhaps a double-edged sword for President Trump.”

Wall Street Journal National Security reporter Lara Seligman, who was part of the team that broke the story, told Blitzer that “just about all” of the country’s joint chiefs were appointed by President Joe Biden, and could find themselves at risk with the order.

“And that could, as I said, create really a chilling effect in the top ranks for the military,” she said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.