Ignoring Trump, US Secretary of Defense Pulls Army from Washington to Barracks
Thursday, June 4, 2020
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Divisions at the elite level of the United States (US) began to occur after a massive wave of action protesting the murder of a black citizen, George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers a few days ago.
This time the split attitude was shown by the US Secretary of Defense Merk T. Esper in responding to the wave of demonstrations by thousands of US citizens that occurred in almost all cities in the United States. Esper strongly rejected President Donald Trump's instructions to ask the Pentagon to mobilize thousands of armed troops in the face of demonstrations that had approached the White House.
In fact, Esther plans to return thousands of US armed troops who are already in Washington D.C back to their barracks.
"I do not support the adoption of the Rebellion Act. The choice to use active duty forces in the role of law enforcement should only be used as a last choice. And only in the most pressing and dire situations. We are not in such a situation now," Esper was quoted as saying. Military.com, Thursday, June 4, 2020.
The planned withdrawal of military forces by the US Defense Secretary was also justified by the US Army Secretary, Ryan McCarthy. According to McCarthy, the decision to return thousands of US armed troops from Washington D.C to the barracks came after US Defense Secretary Mark Ester attended a limited meeting with a number of other Pentagon officials at the White House on Wednesday.
However, McCarthy could not confirm whether Esther met with President Donald Trump in making the decision. However, McCarthy argued, the decision to withdraw military forces to the barracks from Washington D.C was made because of other considerations, namely the strength of the national police and military support in the region was sufficient to deal with a wave of demonstrations around the White House.
So, continued McCarthy, Esper was of the view that there was currently no need for the deployment of military forces from US military bases to deal with thousands of demonstrators.
He further explained that he had received instructions from the Pentagon to send about 200 troops with 82 Airbone cross-air response troops to Washington DC on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. However, a few hours later, Defense Minister Esther had changed the decision by instructing himself to bring back the Airbone 82 troops back to Fort Bragg Military Base.
Until now there has been no official statement from the US President, Donald Trump related to the withdrawal of armed soldiers from the White House.
Military.com report said, since Monday night, at least a thousand more US troops were deployed to secure the White House from a wave of thousands of mass protests against racism in the US
Armed troops deployed by President Donald Trump include, one infantry battalion appointed by Task Force 504 from a military base at Fort Bragg, then from the 16th Military Police Brigade Headquarters outside Fort Bragg, and the 91st Military Police Battalion from Fort Drum .
Beyond that, Trump has also deployed more than 17,000 National Guard troops deployed in 23 US states to deal with a wave of solidarity rallies over George Floyd's death in Minnesota last week.