Retired military leaders slam Trump’s show of force in DC

WASHINGTON — Retired senior military leaders condemned their successors in the Trump administration for ordering active-duty units Monday to rout those peacefully protesting police violence near the White House.

As military helicopters flew low over the nation’s capital and National Guard units moved into many cities, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stood beside President Donald Trump as he took the unusual step of pressing the U.S. military into a domestic confrontation.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote on Twitter that “America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy.”

And Gen. Tony Thomas, the former head of the Special Operations Command, tweeted: “The ‘battle space’ of America??? Not what America needs to hear … ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure … ie a Civil War.”

On Monday, a Black Hawk helicopter, followed by a smaller medical evacuation helicopter, dropped to rooftop level with their search lights aimed at the crowd.

The helicopters were performing a “show of force” — a standard tactic used by military aircraft in combat zones to scatter insurgents. The maneuvers were directed by the highest echelons of the Washington National Guard, according to a military official with direct knowledge of the situation.

For the past three years, U.S. military officials have expressed private concerns that Trump does not understand either his role as commander in chief or the role of the military that is sworn to protect the Constitution from all enemies.

Television networks broadcast images of Milley, in combat fatigues, and Esper, in a suit — walking behind Trump as he crossed Lafayette Square on Monday to a photo opportunity in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Earlier in the day, Esper joined the president’s call with governors and said, “We need to dominate the battlespace” — a comment that set off a torrent of criticism.

More than 40% of the 2 million active-duty and reserve personnel are people of color, and orders to confront protesters demonstrating against a criminal justice system that targets black men troubled many.

The Air Force’s top enlisted airman took to Twitter to express his anger.

“Just like most of the Black Airmen and so many others in our ranks … I am outraged at watching another Black man die on television before our very eyes,” Kaleth Wright, the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, said in a Twitter thread, citing the names of black men who died in police custody or in police shootings. “I am George Floyd … I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice.”

The Pentagon has yet to say how many soldiers it is deploying to Washington, per Trump’s order. Defense Department officials have given varying numbers, from 500 to “thousands.”

The deployment of active-duty troops to confront protesters and looters prompted one military official to liken the order to Trump requesting his own “palace guard.”

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES President Trump makes his way to St. John’s church for a photo op Monday. Military leaders ordered active-duty units to clear out peaceful protesters near the White House.