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Secy Defense: does not support using troops to quell the large-scale protests

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by NewRoxFan, Jun 3, 2020.

  1. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    More fallout from trump's "gassing Americans for a church/bible photo op" fiasco... get ready for another acting Secretary of Defense

    Pentagon chief on shaky ground with White House after breaking with Trump over protest response
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/esper-insurrection-act-protests/index.html
     
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  2. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    epser further questioned the tactic of flying military helicopters low over protesters for intimidation purposes...

    https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article243233086.html
     
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  3. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    What a freaking coward. Whatever integrity this man may have had is completely gone...

     
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  4. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    He's going to be fired very soon
     
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  5. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    LOL... even after getting a key senate supporter...

     
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  6. RayRay10

    RayRay10 Houstonian

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    Hmmmm.....I'd be very interested to know where they're staying while they are in DC. I would hope that they'd be at one of the local bases, but Trump's been known to try to curry favor with military folks (and his base) by having them stay in his properties (at the government's expense of course).
     
  7. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution

    “I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis writes. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” He goes on, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

    In his j’accuse, Mattis excoriates the president for setting Americans against one another.

    “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis writes. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

    He goes on to contrast the American ethos of unity with Nazi ideology. “Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us … was “Divide and Conquer.” Our American answer is “In Union there is Strength.”’ We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.”

    Mattis reached the conclusion this past weekend that the American experiment is directly threatened by the actions of the president he once served. In his statement, Mattis makes it clear that the president’s response to the police killing of George Floyd, and the ensuing protests, triggered this public condemnation.

    “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago,” he writes, “I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

    He goes on to implicitly criticize the current secretary of defense, Mark Esper, and other senior officials as well. “We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.’ At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

    Here is the text of the complete statement.

    IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH
    I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

    When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

    We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

    James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

    Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

    Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

    We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.

    Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.
     
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  8. conquistador#11

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    We'll be at 2 full circles by tomorrow morning.
    [​IMG]
     
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  9. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    To think... the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff would feel the need to send out this memo at this time... this is what trumpism has caused.

     
  10. conquistador#11

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  11. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Do we need the Insurrection Act? At least aside from the National Guard? Protecting the Little Rock 9 is the feather in its cap, but I'm not comfortable with a president being empowered to use active duty military for "law enforcement" on domestic soil in any circumstance. Surely we have other tools at our disposal to address riots than sending soldiers with AR-15s and Blackhawks.
     
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  12. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    Stupid sexy defense.
     
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  13. mdrowe00

    mdrowe00 Member

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    ...we do if you're holding onto the notion that two separate ideas can coexist in the same space at the same time...
    ...remember what happened last time?

    ...didn't Uncle Joe say something once about working with the segregationists?...;)

    ...I'll give the old guy a pass here...he was probably talking about his relationship with deceased Senator Robert Byrd...he who was once a member of the KKK and devoted white supremacist, and later renounced the organization and worked to make amends...

    ...not like he had a lot choices, did Joe, anyway...and again: Byrd had to STOP being a segregationist before anybody could work with him against segregation...

    ...puttin' the cart 'afore the horse ain't gettin' the wagon drug nowhere, Matthew!...:D;)
     
    #13 mdrowe00, Jun 4, 2020
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2020
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  14. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    Any bets on whether any serious investigation will happen?

     
  15. conquistador#11

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  16. RayRay10

    RayRay10 Houstonian

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    Trump just sees them as his little toys.
     
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