White House turns into garrison HQ as Trump insists on military protection

WASHINGTON: The first signs of a militarized American garrison state is unfolding in Washington DC as a battalion of troops in battle gear spread out near the White House on Wednesday evening even as the area rang out with peace songs from hundreds of protestors seeking an end to racial inequality and discrimination, following the murder by a white policeman of an African-American man in Minneapolis ten days ago.
The military deployment against growing protests, made at the instance of US President Donald Trump, a self-confessed militarist who believes in force, came even as his former defense secretary James Mattis, a decorated veteran, blasted him for Nazi tactics of dividing the people. Mattis warned that militarizing response to legitimate protests "sets up a conflict—a false conflict— between the military and civilian society," while arguing one "should not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers."
"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us," Mattis said in a strongly worded statement that castigated the Trump administration for its description of cities as “battlespaces” that need to be “dominated.” Mattis is the second prominent military general to come out against Trump after former joint chiefs of staff Mike Mullen issued a similar warning on Wednesday.
"We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law," the former defense secretary said, describing the protests as a "wholesome and unifying demand... defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience” that "all of us should be able to get behind."
But Trump, who is unabashedly calling on and using the military by presenting the protests as a violent insurrection, lashed back at Mattis, calling him the "world’s most overrated general," while claiming, falsely, that he had fired him and changed his nickname from Chaos to Mad Dog. Mattis resigned in December 2018 after the Trump administration decided to withdraw US troops from Syria and there are published references to his being referred to as "Mad Dog" by his troops as far back as 2004.
The US President also reportedly confronted his current defense secretary Mike Esper in a White House meeting and persuaded him to reel back his views against deploying the military against civilians, allowing injection of troops into the heart of the city.
There is already speculation that Esper's days in the administration are numbered, with the scuttlebutt pointing to Senator Tom Cotton as the next Defense Secretary. Cotton wrote a controversial op-ed in the New York Times on Thursday arguing for sending in the military to quell the protests, leading to a revolt among the NYT editorial staff, with many correspondents and columnists saying that such a line of argument endangered the lives of minorities in the present context.
Outside the White House meanwhile, armed men in military uniform with insignias and nametags removed to prevent identification fanned out along a perimeter that has been extended beyond Lafayette Park, which for the longest time provided the space and platform for all kinds of protestors and peaceniks, including an anti-nuclear pacifist who lived on its grounds for decades. Pushed further afield, protestors gathered in strength before the curfew 11 p.m. singing anthems such as Lean on Me by the African American singer-songwriter Bill Withers.
Meanwhile, memorial services for George Floyd are set to begin on Thursday even as authorities released autopsy reports that revealed that his death was caused by homicide. Even though he had heart disease and had tested positive for coronavirus. Post mortem by officials in Hallepin County where Floyd died revealed that he died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicated by law enforcement subdual."
Meanwhile, as police and para-military mollified protesters in many places by taking the knee with them, rogue cops continued to intimidate people in other places.
Six Atlanta police officers were charged with aggravated assault and battery after a video of them dragging a young black couple from their car during George Floyd protest went viral. In Florida, the Sarasota police department has launched an internal investigation after a video surfaced on social media showing a police officer kneeling on a black man's neck during an arrest, the second such incident seen after Floyd’s killing.