Last week, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, our nation came face to face with a tyrant of our own making: our racism. After the murder of George Floyd by police was filmed by a brave teenager on a smart phone, protests broke out in all 50 states and made up of all types of people: white, black, young, old, male, female, gay, straight, urban, rural.
Donald Trump responded by militarizing the police and politicizing the military to “take back the battlespaces.”
Secretary of Defense Mike Esper, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Milley, and Atty. Gen. William Barr participated in a political stunt by Donald Trump for a photo op at the St. John’s Episcopal Church, violating 200+ years of military tradition.
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence charged the King of England with “rendering the military independent of and superior to the civil power.” After acting like that King of England, Trump abdicated: “General Milley is in charge.”
When confronted by the press to explain, Sec. Esper sheepishly said, “I didn’t know where I was going.”
He personifies how lost the Trump Republicans are.
Others are not lost – they are clear on what happened, and on their response
At that point, the retired generals “couldn’t stay silent any longer.”
Fully equipped riot police and troops violently, and without provocation, set upon the peaceful demonstrators there, manhandling and beating many of them, employing flash-bangs, riot-control agents, and pepper spray. These demonstrators had done nothing to warrant such an attack. The riot police had waded into these nonviolent American citizens … with the sole purpose of clearing the area around St. John’s Episcopal Church.
June 1, 2020. Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.
– Retired 4-Star General John Allen.
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. 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.
Instructions to our troops before the Normandy invasion [D-Day] reminded soldiers that the Nazi slogan for destroying us … was ‘Divide and Conquer,’ Our answer is ‘In Union There Is Strength.’
– Retired 4-Star General James Mattis
In the military, orders must be Moral, Legal, and Ethical.
– Retired Special Forces Admiral William McCraven
This was an authoritarian spectacle – a lawless ruler [president] attacking protesters, using religion as a prop, and declaring war on his own people.
– Ruth Ben-Ghiat, authoritarian expert at NYU
Gail Helt, former CIA analyst and Professor of Securities/Intelligence Studies at King University in Bristol, Tennessee, said she saw democracy fall apart in Malaysia following anti-government protests.
To watch this president become a pressing danger is really unnerving,” she said. “Peaceful protestors were tear gassed at the White House and a lawless rogue force of armed unmarked militia who shot rubber bullets into the crowd had no insignias, rank, or name tags. They can point guns at us, like Saddam’s special police. Could it happen here?
– Gail Helt, former CIA analyst
And ironically, the Russian Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. authorities to respect Americans’ right for peaceful protest sparked by George Floyd’s death.
The silver lining in this crisis? All over the country, some police are kneeling with protestors and putting down their riot shields. They know what’s at stake!
And finally, Colin Powell, a Republican retired 4 Star Army General, announced he is voting for Joe Biden while Republicans Mitt Romney and George W. Bush at least vow not to support Trump.
Unlike Esper, these leaders know where we need to go, and are speaking out to help us get there.
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