On the military pushback against Trump’s proposed military crackdown:
1. It’s better late than never that Mattis, Mullen, and Esper are resisting, but it’s rather depressing that they did so only, apparently, after their own institution – the military – came due for Trumpian /1
1. It’s better late than never that Mattis, Mullen, and Esper are resisting, but it’s rather depressing that they did so only, apparently, after their own institution – the military – came due for Trumpian /1
politicization. Trump has already corrupted US alliances, the GOP, the conservative movement and affiliated media, the regulatory bureaucracy, Congressional Republicans, and, we are learning this week, the police. These guys might have said something earlier.
Military leaders /2
Military leaders /2
correctly sense that if Trump sends in the troops, it will alienate the American left and center-left – maybe 40% of the country – from the military for a generation, because it risks a Kent State repeat – or much worse if ‘no quarter’ Tom Cotton gets his way. Republicans have /3
sought since the Iraq War to politicize the military to exploit its wider institutional legitimacy. Once the war on terror lost public favor, Bush started regularly speaking in front of soldiers, hardware, & flags, demanding we ‘support the troops.’ This was a divisive gimmick /4
to delegitimize policy dissent by tying the 9/11 wars to public support for the military as an institution. Trump, of course, says the quiet part out loud; instead of subtle ‘support the troops’ talk, he treats speaking in front of servicepeople as campaign rallies,handing out /5
MAGA hats, attacking the Democrats and Obama, and so on. He even wants to campaign with war criminal Eddie Gallagher. Sending in soldiers to crush constitutionally-protected citizen protest would accelerate the partisan alignment of the military from a neutral public service /6
body to a section of the Trump coalition. It's fairly appalling that many GOP senators like L Graham know this but won't say anything. This what Mattis & co. are trying to stop.
2. It’s also somewhat disturbing that these leaders’ critiques are taken so seriously when so many /7
2. It’s also somewhat disturbing that these leaders’ critiques are taken so seriously when so many /7
other intellectuals – left, center, and right too – have been pointing out Trump’s voluminous flaws for years. Cable news hosts were downright giddy today over Mattis, when even Glenn Beck (!) came out against Trump in that National Review ‘Against Trump’ issue years ago. It /8
speaks to the militarization of our politics that long-established, well-documented problems in the Trump presidency suddenly become more real, bc former officers say these things.These are the only critics MAGA will listen too? Yet another reason to wind down our forever wars./9
