Defense Secretary Mark Esper Publicly Opposes Use of Troops on Protesters

Wow. This is pretty much a resignation letter in this administration and I think Esper knows it, but I think his reasoning is pretty much right on the money.

Quote:

Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared on Wednesday his opposition to sending active-duty troops into U.S. cities to deal with violent protesters, two days after President Donald Trump threatened to do so if governors don't call up National Guard troops.

White House officials are unhappy with Esper's comments to reporters, a White House aide and two people close to the White House tell POLITICO.

Not sure why he did it, but I am happy that he did it. And I wish him well in his job search.

Sec Defense Mark Esper wrote:

"The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations right now," Esper said Wednesday in his first public comments since the protests erupted.

"I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act," Esper said, referring to the president's authority to deploy active-duty troops to respond to protests.

Retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, who resigned as President Trump's defense secretary nearly a year-and-a-half ago over policy differences, has issued an extraordinary critique of the White House's handling of nationwide unrest, saying Trump has sought to divide Americans, and warning against "militarizing our response" to the protests.

"When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution," Mattis said in a statement published in The Atlantic.

"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," Mattis wrote, referring to a series of events on Monday in which peaceful protesters were cleared from around the White House to make way for an impromptu appearance by the president, Bible in hand, outside a historic church.

"We must reject any thinking of our cities as a 'battlespace' that our uniformed military is called upon to 'dominate,' " Mattis wrote. "At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors."

When you start looting, we start shooting.

would hope the JC'soS would have the backbones to follow Esper and refuse his "orders". They would all go down in righteous flames like Douglas MacArthur. I see a whole lotta books coming out because a firing by a president does not remove your pension unless you are convicted of a felony.

I wonder when the GOP will regain it group backbone?? Surely theyve gotta feel that this clown has usurped the means to destroy our democratic republic.

One good aspect of Trumps election is the on going destruction of the republican party.

Only with the full agreements of the governors involved.