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The Army Didn't Defend Its Country Under Attack on 1/6. Why?

March 23, 2021

By Joe Rothstein

If a foreign nation mobilized dozens of “sleeper cells” in the United States, instructed their agents to march on the U.S. Capitol, occupy it by force with the announced intention of killing the vice president and stopping the legally elected new president from taking office, that action would rightly be considered an act of war.

And if, during the attack on the Capitol, the United States Army, with its headquarters no more than 10 minutes away and with tens of thousands of uniformed troops ringing the area, dithered for hours over the question of whether it was appropriate to defend its government, many would consider it an act of treason.

What happened in Washington on January 6 was even more treacherous than if it had been ordered by Moscow or Beijing. It was mobilized by our own president and abetted by more than 100 sitting members of Congress. In many ways, the aftermath is proving to be even more dangerous.

The U.S. President who arranged for and presided over the attack was effectively absolved of responsibility by 53 senators of his Republican party, including Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader at the time. McConnell, even after admitting that Donald Trump was behind the attack, declined to punish him for it. He now even says he would support Trump if runs for president again, validating that subversion of democracy.

There is an obvious and urgent need for a thorough investigation of 1/6. But McConnell and other Senate Republicans are doing their best to either kill off an investigating commission, or muddy its purpose. Why? The organizations that responded to Trump’s call for insurrection are still out there, armed and dangerous. For many, the fact they successfully seized the Capitol just encourages their belief that with better planning they can do it again, with more long lasting consequences. A thorough investigation would expose who they are, where they are, and hopefully defang the radical, anti-democratic movement. The fact that Republican leadership refuses to agree to such an investigation is another step toward GOP alignment with the objectives of the anti-democratic forces.

And then there’s the matter of the U.S. Army’s role in all of this. An Army unwilling to defend a Capitol when attackers are reveling in “victory” by occupying the Capitol building and searching for government leaders they say they want to kill. An Army watching this happen in real time on television, while Capitol and DC police fight for their lives and beg for help.

The military’s appalling 3-hour delay screams for understanding, particularly when either of the two most obvious explanations are so chilling.

Obvious explanation 1: Donald Trump ordered the military to keep away, hoping the occupation would disrupt Congress long enough to cancel Joe Biden’s certification as the lawfully elected president.

Obvious explanation 2: The military was afraid to activate troops and provide Trump with an armed force that he could then use to help the rioters.

Consider events prior to January 6. Trump had inexplicably replaced the secretary of defense and key intelligence people at the Pentagon with his own loyalists. Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and others were counseling Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to effectively declare martial law and use the military to remain in office. That act had been used as recently as 1992 to help Los Angeles maintain order amid the Rodney King riots. Trump’s law suits had all failed. The three Supreme Court justices Trump appointed declined to do his bidding. He still didn’t concede. He invited the most radical of his supporters to Washington timed to disrupt the January 6 certification, promising them “it would be wild.” He sent them marching to the Capitol with his “we’ll never concede” speech.

The fact that Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act does not preclude him from considering it a live option. Trump waited a full three hours after the first glass was shattered at the Capitol to tell the rioters, “we love you, but go home.” If Pence had died, if Pelosi was being held hostage, if police had used live ammunition to defend themselves, if the rioters had fired back---what would Trump have done then? When none of that happened and the outcome was clear, Trump finally called off the riot.

Whatever Trump’s role was in delaying military intervention, it’s obvious that no investigation will be thorough without an answer. And the military’s failure to defend its own Capitol begs for explanation.

With their vote to exonerate Trump and behavior since, congressional Republicans have shown they cannot be trusted partners in a bi-partisan commission such as Speaker Pelosi has proposed. In effect, Republicans now have included the radical right into its constituency and fear it too much to risk its anger.

A better suggestion than Pelosi’s would be to ask former presidents Obama and Bush to head a commission of nationally respected leaders, none of them currently elected or planning to run for office. Endow the commission with an adequate budget and subpoena power and give it a broad charter to investigate 1/6 the way an earlier commission investigated 9/11.

It would be comfortable to consider January 6 an aberration, but ongoing developments indicate that those intent on overturning our democracy consider it just a successful first battle, setting the stage for what comes next. With congressional Republicans defending the president who issued that call to battle and led it into the streets, no wonder they are less than enthusiastic in digging hard for the truth. They have no standing to be on a commission trying to find it.

(Joe Rothstein is a veteran political strategist and author of the acclaimed political thrillers “The Latina President and the Conspiracy to Destroy Her,” and “The Salvation Project.” He can be contacted at jrothstein@rothstein.net).



Joe Rothstein is a political strategist and media producer who worked in more than 200 campaigns for political office and political causes. He also has served as editor of the Anchorage Daily News and as an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. He has a master's degree in journalism from UCLA. Mr. Rothstein is the author of award-winning political thrillers, The Latina President and the Conspiracy to Destroy Her, The Salvation Project, and The Moment of Menace. For more information, please visit his website at https://www.joerothstein.net/.