Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Why Thousands Of Troops Are Still In Dc
30,000 National Guard units summoned to the Capitol resembled an armed camp
Syndicated Investigative Reporter Michael Webster
Many Americans are questioning the Constitutionally of having troops in the capital with nearly 30,000 National Guard units summoned to the Capitol resembled an armed camp, with rifle-bearing soldiers standing shoulder from one another, and heavy military trucks and K-rails blocking excess to the capital and roads leading to capital. That is roughly three times the total number of American troops deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria. Other troops will help control traffic and Metro stations elsewhere in the city. Members of the Guard at the Capitol will be equipped with Beretta M9 sidearms and some will carry automatic rifles and shotguns. All will have protective riot gear, including helmets and Kevlar vests, Guard officials said. According to some legislatures these troop weapons are not loaded have no ammunition in them.
The city itself contended with a wide perimeter of closed streets. The military will keep thousands of National Guard troops at the US Capital for the foreseeable future. This appears to the rest of the world as turning America into a banana republic.
According to the government the troops will be the National Guard and not active-duty. But officials know such events are fraught with risk and cite Kent State in 1970, Tiananmen Square in 1989 and Tehran in 2009.
The Defense Department crossed a line that the Pentagon officials have tried to avoid. This to the world appears to be pitting armed military forces against American citizens in there own Capital.
The NY Times reports that the vast majority of military forces in Washington will be National Guard. But a small number of elite commandos from the Joint Special Operations Command, a secretive command based at Fort Bragg, N.C.,This elite force is designed to help counter any terrorist attack or other national emergency, especially any involving nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Under the 1878 federal law members of the army are prohibited from acting as a domestic police force.
Active-duty troops are only allowed to help police officers under limited exceptions to the act, including when expressly authorized by law or by the constitution.
But one politician has expressed concern that the soldiers may find themselves in a legal grey area. House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Readiness, said the situation teetered “on the edge of the Posse Comitatus law.”
The US military’s Northern Command defended the troops’ presence in the Capital.
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
The democrat leadership is trying to pit the military against conservatives. They are hoping for another fight so they can enact martial law, something they accused President Trump of doing. The military has to do their bidding. Well, not really, according to the Military Code of Ethics. The question becomes, will the Democrats get what they actually want? After a year of lockdowns and the psychological warfare Americans have had to face over Covid, Biden has welcomed millions of illegal immigrants (many with COVID), breaking the law and violating his own lockdown orders. Americans will pay for his orders.
Mr Secretary of Defense:
As a US citizen that pays your salary I would like to order you to take down these fences and send the guys home. This is ridiculous.
It doesn't explain why the troops are still in our Capital
The District of Columbia is not a state and therefore has no National Guard of its own. When faced with the horrifying, seditious insurrection of January 6, 2021 to overthrow the government by force and violence at the behest of would-be dictator and notorious fascist liar, Nazi Trump, with an estimated 30,000 people in the rally, egged on by Nazi Trump, recorded on video and audio tape to invade the Capitol, while Nazi Trump called congresspeople to ask them to overturn the election which he lost by 7 million votes as the seditious insurrection of thousands of terrorists, many of whom were obviously and now well-documented off-duty police and retired military, many armed with pepper spray, bear spray, stun guns and flag poles used as spears, and with military knowledge of how to overthrow governments as that is what the US military does around the world, illegally and with long-planned malice aforethought invaded the Capitol, with the stated intent of killing Democratic legislators and Republican vice president Mike Pence forcing everyone in the Capitol to flee and hide to save their own lives and the handful of Capitol police on duty to defend everyone in the Capitol, for 3 long, horrifying hours seen by the world on TV, the US military produced the requested National Guard troops just in time for the 6 p.m. curfew when these fascist thugs turned tail and went home, posting their evil, criminal deeds on the Internet for all the world to see, including their faces. Most of the troops were told to leave after the January 20, 2021 inauguration. The rest, at last report, 7,000, are expected to leave soon, although it is not clear how soon.
The 7 foot tall fence with barbed wire on top surrounding the Capitol, the most effective long term defense against any seditious insurrection, remains. It is not clear how long that will stand since the people who live in DC appear not to be happy with it.
The original article complains that this scene appears to pit the "armed military forces against American citizens in there own Capital" and "this appears to the rest of the world as turning America into a banana republic." It is Nazi Trump's seditious insurrectionists who openly opposed and threatened the lives of the elected representatives of the people of this country. The United States has been a banana republic since its inception.
Deborah Cales' comment that "After a year of lockdowns and the psychological warfare Americans have had to face over Covid, Biden has welcomed millions of illegal immigrants (many with COVID), breaking the law and violating his own lockdown orders" is even more reactionary than the original article.
We have not experienced any psychological warfare and nobody is standing outside the door of each of our homes locking us in, as is done in prisons. Wearing a cheap, lightweight mask over your nose and mouth when you step out of your home to slow the spread of COVID19 is the least anyone can do to save your life and everyone else's life as masks save lives. When you are eligible, you can and should get the vaccine as that is how we save even more lives and reopen the economy. We all go out for shopping, all appointments, exercise, sunshine and fresh air and unlike some countries, we do not have to obtain a pass to go outside for anything. The only reason things are closed in San Francisco is due to lack of tourists and office workers who can work from home do so. No one is standing outside any office building telling people not to go to work inside.
Biden is not welcoming anyone at all. He has announced that the border with Mexico is closed, deported families and single adults who have arrived recently, and is only providing shelter to unaccompanied children who now number 15,000, by definition the least likely to be sick from COVID19, all refugees from poverty and climate change crises in their home countries, which home countries are all colonies of US imperialism, the original banana republics as to crops as that is where most of our bananas come from. See https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/22/headlines/us_says_border_is_closed_as_number_of_unaccompanied_children_in_govt_custody_tops_15_000
The immigration crisis can only be solved by a change in American foreign policy so that the US stops overthrowing democratically elected governments around the world, including Latin America, and a change in American trade policies so that the trade agreements do not force farmers in Latin America to go out of business. The alternative of course is a revolution in all of Latin America, which may be one effect of closing the border.
The 7 foot tall fence with barbed wire on top surrounding the Capitol, the most effective long term defense against any seditious insurrection, remains. It is not clear how long that will stand since the people who live in DC appear not to be happy with it.
The original article complains that this scene appears to pit the "armed military forces against American citizens in there own Capital" and "this appears to the rest of the world as turning America into a banana republic." It is Nazi Trump's seditious insurrectionists who openly opposed and threatened the lives of the elected representatives of the people of this country. The United States has been a banana republic since its inception.
Deborah Cales' comment that "After a year of lockdowns and the psychological warfare Americans have had to face over Covid, Biden has welcomed millions of illegal immigrants (many with COVID), breaking the law and violating his own lockdown orders" is even more reactionary than the original article.
We have not experienced any psychological warfare and nobody is standing outside the door of each of our homes locking us in, as is done in prisons. Wearing a cheap, lightweight mask over your nose and mouth when you step out of your home to slow the spread of COVID19 is the least anyone can do to save your life and everyone else's life as masks save lives. When you are eligible, you can and should get the vaccine as that is how we save even more lives and reopen the economy. We all go out for shopping, all appointments, exercise, sunshine and fresh air and unlike some countries, we do not have to obtain a pass to go outside for anything. The only reason things are closed in San Francisco is due to lack of tourists and office workers who can work from home do so. No one is standing outside any office building telling people not to go to work inside.
Biden is not welcoming anyone at all. He has announced that the border with Mexico is closed, deported families and single adults who have arrived recently, and is only providing shelter to unaccompanied children who now number 15,000, by definition the least likely to be sick from COVID19, all refugees from poverty and climate change crises in their home countries, which home countries are all colonies of US imperialism, the original banana republics as to crops as that is where most of our bananas come from. See https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/22/headlines/us_says_border_is_closed_as_number_of_unaccompanied_children_in_govt_custody_tops_15_000
The immigration crisis can only be solved by a change in American foreign policy so that the US stops overthrowing democratically elected governments around the world, including Latin America, and a change in American trade policies so that the trade agreements do not force farmers in Latin America to go out of business. The alternative of course is a revolution in all of Latin America, which may be one effect of closing the border.
For more information:
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/22/hea...
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$110.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network