Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2020 4:06:30 GMT
"We’re not a banana republic yet."
The leaders of the American military establishment drew a line in the sand last week, staging a polite but unmistakable rebellion against the dangerous impulses of President Trump.
And the rebels may be winning.
The most widely noted salvo came from former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who declared, after more than a year of silence, that Trump “does not even pretend to try” to unify the American people.
But Mattis wasn’t the only dissident — or even the most important one.
Trump’s Defense secretary, Mark Esper, rebuffed the president’s threat to deploy active-duty soldiers into American cities to quell the protests that have erupted since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
On Friday, Esper ordered regular Army units that were rushed to Washington early in the week to return to their bases in New York and North Carolina, de-escalating the sense of armed siege in the nation’s capital.
He also directed National Guard troops to patrol the city without weapons, despite Trump’s direction that they be “heavily armed.”...
If there’s anything uniformed officers hate, it’s being ordered to use force to solve a political problem without clear military objectives. The current generation learned that in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In this case, they faced a nightmare scenario: U.S. combat troops clashing with unarmed American civilians exercising their legal right to protest.
The episode laid bare a deeper divide.
When the president came to the White House in 2017, he believed the armed forces, which he frequently called “my military,” were part of his political base. He stuffed his administration with retired military officers — “my generals” — including Mattis.
But the generals didn’t simply salute and carry out his orders. They insisted on offering their professional advice and, on occasion, pushing back.
And they chafed at Trump’s casual portrayal of the armed forces as one of his personal political assets.
“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people,” the president bragged in 2019...
And since roughly 40% of service members are people of color, they know they must make diversity work....
But if you’re worried that Trump might refuse to leave office if he loses the November election, this is a good thing: a signal that he can’t count on the military to get his way. We’re not a banana republic yet."
www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-07/column-trump-finds-an-unexpected-center-of-resistance-the-pentagon
The leaders of the American military establishment drew a line in the sand last week, staging a polite but unmistakable rebellion against the dangerous impulses of President Trump.
And the rebels may be winning.
The most widely noted salvo came from former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who declared, after more than a year of silence, that Trump “does not even pretend to try” to unify the American people.
But Mattis wasn’t the only dissident — or even the most important one.
Trump’s Defense secretary, Mark Esper, rebuffed the president’s threat to deploy active-duty soldiers into American cities to quell the protests that have erupted since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
On Friday, Esper ordered regular Army units that were rushed to Washington early in the week to return to their bases in New York and North Carolina, de-escalating the sense of armed siege in the nation’s capital.
He also directed National Guard troops to patrol the city without weapons, despite Trump’s direction that they be “heavily armed.”...
If there’s anything uniformed officers hate, it’s being ordered to use force to solve a political problem without clear military objectives. The current generation learned that in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In this case, they faced a nightmare scenario: U.S. combat troops clashing with unarmed American civilians exercising their legal right to protest.
The episode laid bare a deeper divide.
When the president came to the White House in 2017, he believed the armed forces, which he frequently called “my military,” were part of his political base. He stuffed his administration with retired military officers — “my generals” — including Mattis.
But the generals didn’t simply salute and carry out his orders. They insisted on offering their professional advice and, on occasion, pushing back.
And they chafed at Trump’s casual portrayal of the armed forces as one of his personal political assets.
“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people,” the president bragged in 2019...
And since roughly 40% of service members are people of color, they know they must make diversity work....
But if you’re worried that Trump might refuse to leave office if he loses the November election, this is a good thing: a signal that he can’t count on the military to get his way. We’re not a banana republic yet."
www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-07/column-trump-finds-an-unexpected-center-of-resistance-the-pentagon
