Just for some context: the prohibition of using the Military in the States dates back to reconstruction. Slaveholding States didn’t like the Yankee Army protecting Civil rights.
I’m not defending Trump, but the idea that using troops as law enforcement is “Un-American” or tyrannical is Confederate propaganda.
There’s another way to look at this. Fascism has often been defined as “Imperialism Returning to the Core”. A great deal of the ICE buildup and the arming of Sheriff’s Deputy Gangs with military surplus is coming from the surplus men who came out of our Iraq and Afghanistan occupations.
Even before you get into using the explicit military (rather than the paramilitary) on US soil, you’d do well to recognize that we’re employing the same tactics against LA and Chicago that we had once employed in Baghdad and Kandahar. The escalation of troops into cities matches Bush/McCain era “Surge” rhetoric, with many of the same rationales and objectives.
the idea that using troops as law enforcement is “Un-American” or tyrannical is Confederate propaganda
Might be worth remembering that the original Confederate Army was composed of rebel officers from the Mexican-American War. You can draw a straight line from the annexation of Texas and California, through the failed filibuster of Cuba, and on to the First Battle of Bull Run. Future Confederate soldiers cut their teeth in Bleeding Kansas and suppressed the slave revolt at Harper’s Ferry.
Using troops as law enforcement was their whole game, until the got punted out of Gettysburg and torched straight through Atlanta on to Savannah.
And the turn in rhetoric somehow didn’t extend to the Battle of Blair Mountain or the suppression of Civil Rights Marches in Selma, much less the gunning down of anti-war protesters at Kent State.
The world has learned a lot about the separation of police and military in the past 100 years or so. If you don’t prefer the term “Anti-American” how about “Anti-human rights”?
Just for some context: the prohibition of using the Military in the States dates back to reconstruction. Slaveholding States didn’t like the Yankee Army protecting Civil rights.
I’m not defending Trump, but the idea that using troops as law enforcement is “Un-American” or tyrannical is Confederate propaganda.
Which is even more on the nose coming from him
Troops are not trained law enforcement personnel. They are trained to threaten and kill.
Also, civil rights weren’t solidified into law until about a century later.
I do agree that this kind of threat is very American, though.
There’s another way to look at this. Fascism has often been defined as “Imperialism Returning to the Core”. A great deal of the ICE buildup and the arming of Sheriff’s Deputy Gangs with military surplus is coming from the surplus men who came out of our Iraq and Afghanistan occupations.
Even before you get into using the explicit military (rather than the paramilitary) on US soil, you’d do well to recognize that we’re employing the same tactics against LA and Chicago that we had once employed in Baghdad and Kandahar. The escalation of troops into cities matches Bush/McCain era “Surge” rhetoric, with many of the same rationales and objectives.
Might be worth remembering that the original Confederate Army was composed of rebel officers from the Mexican-American War. You can draw a straight line from the annexation of Texas and California, through the failed filibuster of Cuba, and on to the First Battle of Bull Run. Future Confederate soldiers cut their teeth in Bleeding Kansas and suppressed the slave revolt at Harper’s Ferry.
Using troops as law enforcement was their whole game, until the got punted out of Gettysburg and torched straight through Atlanta on to Savannah.
And the turn in rhetoric somehow didn’t extend to the Battle of Blair Mountain or the suppression of Civil Rights Marches in Selma, much less the gunning down of anti-war protesters at Kent State.
The world has learned a lot about the separation of police and military in the past 100 years or so. If you don’t prefer the term “Anti-American” how about “Anti-human rights”?