Several service members told advocacy groups they felt like pawns in a political game and assignment was unnecessary
California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.
Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.
“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans.
this is a good thing to hear
Similar when they were doing border patrol in Texas.
Military training is kinda big on threat identification and assessment. You don’t have to like the military to appreciate some of the stuff you can learn from it.
Protesting is not a threat to America. It’s a threat to the people who are in charge.
That’s why it’s essential we keep it peaceful while we increase our numbers. If we are non-violent, we cannot be determined to be a domestic threat, and it’s the military’s duty to protect us.
If we are non-violent, TACO will just say “They’re violent!” and a majority of this country, including our military, will believe him. Things can only go downhill from here.
Arm yourselves.
And if we’re still non-violent, someone will join who isn’t and ensure some violence exists. It’s Plan 1A in the dictator playbook.
Yup, that too. There is no happy ending.
It’s not the military’s duty to protect protestors. Just as the police have no obligation to protect and serve citizens.
I wholeheartedly agree with regards to the cops and ICE.
But I actually completely disagree on that statement being applied to the NG and Marines.
I’d argue that the armed forced have a rather explicit duty to protect their own fellow citizens as best they can.
And if some dipshit commander orders the marines or CANG to actually open fire on US civilians, I really do think that the E4 mafia might have something to say about that, and that the commissioned officers and cops and ICE fascists might very quickly find themselves staring down the barrels of the deployed troops.
Put another way: if active duty troops are ordered to fire on unarmed protesters, I would not at all be shocked if the enlisted and noncoms refuse the orders and mutiny, up to and including fragging the officers who gave the orders if they keep pushing.
Orangeboi et al seem to think the troops are robots. They’re absolutely not.
I really hope you’re right
One way or another, I feel like we’re all gonna see the answer to that question before this bullshit settles down in any meaningful way
It’s not the military’s duty to protect protestors.
The path of enlistment starts like this:
I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same
Peaceful protest is our constitutional right.
The swearing-in of the President starts with something very similar, if not identical.
And yet, here we are.
Just because Trump isn’t performing his duty doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a duty.
My point was that that also applies to the military. Just because they have a duty to uphold the Constitution doesn’t necessarily mean that they will perform that duty.
Maybe they can identify the actual threat and neutralize him.
You means the person(s) funding all of this?
/s
Police rules of engagement is shockingly 0, cops kill anyone for any reason if they perceive even the slightest chance of a threat to themselves. The military has a rigorous 5-6 steps for using increasing amounts of violence from shouting to actually firing.
deleted by creator
It’s not. Unhappy people can lash out. You put a bunch of angry people on the riot control line, and they might start hitting people. It’s all downhill from there.
You’re right, it would be so much better if they were happy to be there. I would much prefer knowing that all of the soldiers are excited to suppress our constitutional right to protest. WAY better than the chance of one lashing out because they’re mad at their boss, right?
Low morale/dissatisfaction =/= anger. They’re more likely to be uncomfortable and unwilling to use violence against protesters, especially since they are significantly more trained to identify threats than police are. They know these protesters are not a threat, and all their training and rules of engagement tell them to not engage.
While I generally agree that dissatisfaction != anger, soldiers who are repeatedly given orders they know are bullshit and that they strongly disagree with typically tend to get pissed at the people issuing those orders.
MobHerd mentality“Man we don’t want to be here this is stupid, guess I’ll just fucking murder a bunch of people to feel better”
You’re making a lot of wild leaps from “I don’t feel good about being here and being used life this” to “I want to hit people!” even if they did, the people they want to hit are the ones who sent them there. And that’s also good.
Good.
Maybe they might refuse any coming illegal orders.
Like literally all of them?
Maybe.
I’d accept ANY, honestly.
I’m saying all their orders to even be deployed in LA are illegal.
Maybe something will change when they’re ordered to live rounds.
I hope they live with this shame forever
You hope for immortal troops to occupy us cities? I guess you like a challenge.
Monkey’s paw: troops are immortal.
Would actually suck for them too. Reminds me of the line in 300: “May you live forever.” It is most certainly not a blessing.
And in interesting times no less!
They could believe ypu carry shame into an afterlife should they believe in one.
Ehh seems like a stretch, have to assume too many things.
You’ve tried surviving in the US on “Hard” mode, now try the new “Nightmare” difficulty!
I hope the ones that don’t feel shame from this, soon feel deep shame, and the ones that feel shame from this act in ways that no longer cause shame.
They shouldn’t be there. The national guard is for fighting wildfires and vaccinating hundreds of thousands of people during the pandemic. They are not to be abused for idiotic political reasons, especially for protests with very few bad apples.
The national guard, if i understand it correctly, is meant to be the well-regulated militia of the states as outlined in the 2nd amendment. They shouldn’t even be under federal control at all.
Every military and law enforcement member needs to understand right now that attacking protesters for exercising their First Amendment rights is crossing a line that they can never come back from. I, for one, will always hold it against any MAGA for the rest of my life. They deserve to be mercilessly shunned, ridiculed, and discriminated against for the rest of their miserable, stupid, treasonous lives. I own a business, and I will never hire a MAGA supporter, ever.
deleted by creator
What is the strat for MAGA customers?
I’ll take their money. I won’t cut them any breaks though.
MAGA customers are a double edged sword. You can sell them on practically anything as long as it “owns the libs”, but they often don’t have much money.
Good. They should be troubled. This is utterly fucked.
Can’t wait for the Nürnberger defense
Maybe it’s time to stop “just following orders”.
Pawns of political games feel like pawns of political game? No fucking way, at this rate, they will get self-conscience faster than they predict it for ai.
I mean didn’t a court just said this deployment is illegal? Just use that as an excuse and be like: “fuck this, I’m out”. Like literally just start holding a poster and go to the protester’s side.
A judge ruled the troops can remain there for now.
This bullshit is going to tank military recruitment numbers.
You did a double post.
No, in the other one they said it would absolutely tank recruitment numbers. They seem less sure here.
Fuck yeah
At least some good news came out of this then
This bullshit is going to absolutely tank military recruitment numbers.
And also boost retirements of career members who manage and operate the military. Which will be okay with the MAGA Nazis, because eventually they’ll have an entire military of followers who will happily kill ANYONE for HitlerPig.
My Dad was a helicopter pilot in the Army, during the late 50s, and wanted to do that for his entire life. Then Vietnam heated up, and he was going to train pilots to go to over there, and might have ended up there himself. Nobody could explain to him why this was happening, and he didn’t want to train young men (like himself) to go off and die for a war that nobody could explain, so he quit flying, retired from the military, and got into the insurance game.
I would imagine that a lot of career military are questioning their career paths.
I would imagine that a lot of career military are questioning their career paths.
Absolutely.
we can fucking hope so
This. And that’s a good thing
It would be really bad if the only people left in the military were trump stooges.
Anyone who obeys his orders is his stooge at the end of the day. Doesn’t matter how they personally feel about it, unless that leads to them disobeying such orders.
Military will lose tons of public support for turning on us. All those military holidays? They won’t be a thing to celebrate.
“I signed up to kill brown people in the middle east, not this”
That’s not what the National Guard is for. It’s meant to help citizens in times of crisis and defend the nation in case of invasion, not be deployed overseas.
Killing brown people in the middle east - I sleep
Killing brown people in America - real shit
“I signed up because I was too poor to go to college and had no other career prospects.” Don’t assume.
I signed up to kill brown people in the middle east, not
thishere"FTFY
They should be feeling like shit. They are acting like shit and following unconstitutional orders. Grow a goddamn spine and frag any officers who give you unconstitutional orders.
asdf
they also have a dilemma, if theyw ere to shoot a citizen, then once they get out of the military, people will know who shot them and then there will be constant guilt/harrasment, or doxxing eventually.
The troops are not issued ammunition.
The instant they shoot a civilian they are an outlaw. Outlaws are beyond the protection of the law. They are beyond the protections of the law. They are kill on sight.
Please. Please. Please. Come on boys, just read the Constitution, you didn’t sign up for this shit.
Now is the time for malicious compliance
