President Donald Trump holds up a Bible as he stands in front of St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House after walking there for a photo opportunity during ongoing protests in Washington, June 1. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Dov S. Zakheim, National Interest: Donald Trump Is Undermining Military Morale and Cohesion
Many former senior officers and government officials have rightly protested Donald Trump’s calling upon the military to clear Lafayette Square on Monday night. There is yet another deleterious consequence of the president’s high-handed decision to have troops confront peaceful American protesters. It is the impact that his actions may have on our fighting men overseas.
The United States military has been a leader in ensuring that the American melting pot continues to function as originally intended. To that end, it has boasted senior officers from all races and religions. It has had an African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell; numerous general and flag officers from all Christian denominations. Asian American officers, including a Japanese-American Army Chief of Staff. A Jewish Chief of Staff of the Air Force; Muslim officers as well.
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WNU Editor: A couple of things are wrong with the above article. When did the Park Service and the Secret Service became part of the military? And as to the claim that tear gas was used, as one can see from the videos that were posted by the Washington Post, police officials were not wearing gas masks, which is what they would wear if they were using tear gas .... Timeline: The clearing of Lafayette Square (Washington Post). What we are seeing are smoke and shock bombs. Nothing new there. And as for President Trump making a visit to St. John's church. He had a choice .... stay in his bunker in the White House or make his presence felt at a historic church in front of the White House that was firebombed the previous day by protesters. He did the right thing. This should not even be up for debate. But it is, because the image of the President in front of a firebombed church was incredibly damn effective. And as for undermining military morale and cohesion? I do not see that. What I see are many in America's police forces and the military deeply troubled by all of the violence that they are seeing .... while being the recipient of much of it. But is their morale and cohesion being undermined with all of this happening? I have yet to see that to the scale that former General Mattis and Admiral Mullen are claiming.
10 comments:
The US Military in the officer ranks, is as infected with Leftism as any other corporate hierarchy. They are as much part of the swamp as the bureaucrats that actually run the government.
The recent statements by high ranking officers shows a complete lack of awareness of the actual situation on the ground. These people are used to being spoon fed intel, and they still are, but now it's from the left wing media.
If you look at their stands on globalism and the threat of China, you will see that they are no better than Democratic politicians.
"....the president in front of the firebombed church was incredibly dam effective." I've only seen bits and pieces of this and haven't had time to watch the video of his speech. I hope to do that this evening. Instead we are hearing a repetition of the lie that peaceful protesters were cleared out of Lafayette Park to make way for POTUS. The park police have debunked this. I suppose if we repeat a lie long enough and loud enough people will start to believe this.
I can see how it would be effective for 1.)those who have been attacked by these elements, having the businesses destroyed, and having family members hurt and killed by similar fire bombings or 2.) people of faith who have their rights repeatedly trampled upon. The media and other politicians are obviously going to be up in arms about this as none of these groups have any representation within the halls of power right now and the media despises them.
Troll keeps trolling
Anon (2:08PM),
Your 2nd paragraph is spot on. The worst part about it is these idiots are in charge of making decisions that have the potential to place my loved ones in danger and they can't even figure the most basic things out!! God help us all!!
Anon (3:27PM),
I've seen this before after one of my posts. It seems to me everyone on this thread is pretty much staying on topic and is avoiding other commenters. The only trolling here would be from you. Now, if you have something worthwhile to offer here, please do so. Otherwise don't waste time. There are serious people here are trying to discuss the topics at hand and such comments are not helpful and spoil things for everyone.
I meant to say "it seems to me everyone on this thread is pretty much staying on topic and is avoiding insulting other commenters." I apologize for the typo.
Плакат, чертовски путинский член сосет тролль. трахни тебя и твою страну и твою семью слизи
Poster,
How do you know 3:27 is posting about you? Are you feeling guilty.
I'm not sure if he/she is or not. I did notice this exact wording has shown up twice directly after my posts. So I think you could see how I might interpret it that way, however, as you will note in the post I did not accuse him or her of that. I don't feel guilty at all. I was pointing out to him/her that others on this thread are generally staying on topic and aren't insulting others meaning none of the posts on this thread would meet the definition of trolling. I was merely pointing out to this person that their post is by definition trolling. I further pointed out to them to either add something constructive to the dialogue or stop wasting time. I have nothing to feel guilty about.
Perhaps he/she could make an impassioned defense for General Mattis. Essentially anon at 2:08 in his/her middle paragraph has nailed it. I'm not sure it goes far enough though. In my considered opinion, this is one of the more reprehensible statements ever made by a US leader or former leader in the history of the country. He apparently doesn't know that over 10,000 arrest have been made. Furthermore he hasn't been watching any of the live feeds or he'd know that those being arrested are only about 1 in every 100 looters or so at most. Furthermore he'd recognize that law enforcement are taking extreme caution to avoid arresting peaceful protesters, are even encouraging them, and endangering the lives of innocents and their property in order to do so. Of course he cannot be distracted long enough to learn anything!! With that said he doesn't have to be distracted. As a former high ranking government official, he will no doubt have a highly armed and lethal security force attached to him 24/7. Should any of these people threaten him, his family, or his property he will no doubt expect them to go "Insurrection Act" on them but the American people cannot be afforded the same protection. You see he can't be distracted. One set of rules for me and another set of rules for thee.
During his command career he had no problem sending young men and women on fruitless missions around the world that not only didn't/don't advance our national security interests but actually undermine them all while placing their lives in peril for this. On the other hand he does seem to have a problem with having American operate in a manner to defend the lives and property of innocent Americans. This type of leadership will do more to undermine morale and cohesion far more than anything Trump has ever done or could do.
No comment for domestic problem....so divided!
The domestic situation is indeed divided. The most divisive statement during this time if not all time is the statement by general Mattis. "We must not allow us to be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers."
While police take the lead, it is the responsibility of everyone to confront lawbreakers. When we allow ourselves to become distracted before ANY lawbreaker lawlessness flourishes. Not only this but general Mattis sent a loud and clear message that to him at least the victims of this don't matter to him and they he holds them in contempt.
A better statement would have been, "we understand that the murdering, looting, and rioting needs to be stopped, however, I do not think that invoking the Insurrection Act is warranted right now. With the proper tools and support I believe this is something local law enforcement working on concert with the national guard can solve." Of course that position would be identical to the ones he's by Trump and the Secretary of Defense!!
There was no reason for his statement unless he sought to divide. I liken it to throwing fuel on an already raging fire. James Mattis the ultimate divider. Like POTUS I'm grateful he's not there!! Unfortunately there's allot like him in power in the US. In order to heal and unify, peiple like this need to be purged from such positions.
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