{"id":30467,"date":"2020-07-18T11:41:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T06:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/?p=30467"},"modified":"2020-07-18T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T06:41:04","slug":"a-moment-of-national-shame-and-peril-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/internationalaffairs\/a-moment-of-national-shame-and-peril-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A Moment of National Shame and Peril\u2014and Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eto_george_floyd_silence_060420\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

A Moment of National Shame and Peril\u2014and Hope<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

John Allen<\/span><\/p>\n

Gen. John Allen, the former commander of the Nato International Security Assistance Force and US forces in Afghanistan, recently penned a scathing essay published online by Foreign Policy magazine on June 03. In this essay, he has termed President Trump\u2019s threats to use the US military on protesters as \u201cthe beginning of the end of the American experiment.\u201d Allen warned that Trump\u2019s ongoing threats to send US military troops into states whose governors do not sufficiently \u201cdominate\u201d the protests should be chilling to all Americans. Following is the text of the essay<\/p>\n

The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on June 1, 2020. Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.<\/p>\n

The president of the United States stood in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, railed against weak governors and mayors who were not doing enough, in his mind, to control the unrest and the rioters in their cities, and threatened to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens. It was a stunning moment. But, in particular, it was notable for three important reasons.<\/p>\n

First, Donald Trump expressed only the barest of condolences at the murder of George Floyd, but he also said nothing about the fundamental and underlying reasons for the unrest: systemic racism and inequality, a historic absence of respect, and a denial of justice. All of these factors are centuries old and deeply engrained in an American society that systematically delivers white privilege at the expense of people of color.<\/p>\n

Yes, he mentioned George Floyd, but he did not touch on long-standing societal problems at all. He sees the crisis as a black problem\u2014not as something to be addressed by creating the basis and impetus for a move toward social justice, but as an opportunity to use force to portray himself as a \u201claw and order\u201d president. The reasons were irrelevant to the opportunity. Remember the supposed invasion of the southern border and his deployment of federal troops ahead of the 2018 midterm elections? The president\u2019s failure to understand the reality of the problem was on full display when, on Saturday, he attempted to explain that his supporters, the so-called Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, \u201clove African American people. They love black people. MAGA loves the black people.\u201d Evidently his movement, MAGA, is a coherent thing, and it\u2019s white, which leads to the next point about his speech.\"sbr060420dapr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Second, Trump was clear he views those engaged in the unrest and criminal acts in these riots as terrorists, an enemy. He said so, ostensibly as justification to deploy the U.S. military to apply federal force\u2014his \u201cpersonal\u201d force\u2014against the riots. Indeed, the secretary of defense used the military term \u201cbattlespace\u201d to describe American cities.<\/p>\n

While there may be some very accomplished criminals on both sides of the riots, the truth is that they are minuscule in numbers. The vast majority of the people protesting in the streets are justifiably furious at the murder of George Floyd, but they\u2019re even angrier over pervasive injustice, mass incarceration, frequent false arrests, and an institutionalized devaluation of black lives and property. And yes, as this anger has spilled over, violence and criminality have ensued. But as much as the president would like them to be\u2014indeed, needs them to be\u2014terrorists, that is not what these people are. The president and members of his administration seem bent on ensuring that the so-called antifa\u2014or anti-fascist\u2014movement is fully on display as a principal reason for the violence. To deal with antifa, the president even tweeted that he intended to designate the group a terrorist organization\u2014never mind that he has no authority to designate any domestic movement as such. Those of us who\u2019ve looked closely at homegrown violent extremism do, in fact, agree that a domestic terrorism statute should exist. And were such a statute to come into being, the obvious targets for designation as domestic terrorists are, first and foremost, violent white supremacist groups and individuals who provide material assistance to these groups.\"wcavpgx1th151\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And even if antifa is found to fit the statute as well, let me be clear: White supremacists have murdered, lynched, tortured, terrorized, oppressed, and discriminated against black Americans from the beginning of the idea of America. They have killed black Americans by the thousands, often in the most horrific ways imaginable. Far more damage to the United States has come from these terrorists\u2014fascists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis, all feeling newly empowered today\u2014than those who have opposed them.<\/p>\n

Finally, the governors have sufficient law enforcement capacity\u2014and, if necessary, the combat power of the National Guard\u2014to handle their respective crises. If not, they can ask for federal assistance. There is no precedent in modern U.S. history for a president to wield federal troops in a state or municipality over the objections of the respective governor. Right now, the last thing the country needs\u2014and, frankly, the U.S. military needs\u2014is the appearance of U.S. soldiers carrying out the president\u2019s intent by descending on American citizens. This could wreck the high regard Americans have for their military, and much more.<\/p>\n

Third, in a bid to create some appearance that he can empathize with those demonstrating peacefully in the streets, the president proclaimed himself the \u201cally of peaceful protesters.\u201d But, at that very moment, just a few hundred feet away across Lafayette Park, fully equipped riot police and troops violently, and without provocation, set upon the peaceful demonstrators there, manhandling and beating many of them, employing flash-bangs, riot-control agents, and pepper spray throughout. These demonstrators had done nothing to warrant such an attack. Media who were watching over the scene craned their cameras to try to understand what had happened to justify this violence, until it became clear for all to see. The riot police had waded into these nonviolent American citizens\u2014who were protesting massive social injustice\u2014with the sole purpose of clearing the area around St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church, on the other side of the park, so the self-proclaimed \u201cally of peaceful protesters,\u201d Donald Trump, could pose there for a photo-op.<\/p>\n

There had evidently been a debate within the president\u2019s inner circle about the efficacy of attempting a national statement to create a sense of unity in this moment of crisis. Clearly, the argument in favor of such a statement did not carry the day. The president has failed to show sympathy, empathy, compassion, or understanding\u2014some of the traits the nation now needs from its highest office. Perhaps sensing this moment as an opportunity for an easy victory after his appalling leadership failure in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, the president came down hard: hard on the governors and mayors he\u2019d labeled as weak, the same ones he\u2019d left to fend for themselves during the pandemic, and hard on the Americans in the streets against whom he is preparing to dispatch \u201cthousands upon thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement.\u201d At the end of his speech, offhandedly saying something about going to pay homage to a national shrine, the president departed back into the White House.\"governments-coronavirus-foreign-policy-brian-stauffer-illustration-authoritarian_16_9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church is one of the most historic churches in the United States, in which every president since James Madison has worshipped. It had been damaged the night before, when a fire had been contained in the basement with little damage. But on the afternoon of June 1, it was surrounded by members of the U.S. Secret Service, other law enforcement personnel, and soldiers. Tear gas was hanging in the air, with vomit still on the street from demonstrators overcome by gas and pepper spray. The debris of peaceful protesters attacked in the clearing operation littered the street. As it became clear where the president was headed, and as the reality of what was unfolding set in, a horrified nation looked on.<\/p>\n

The president stood in front of St. John\u2019s, holding a Bible aloft, and expropriated the image of the church, the Holy Bible, and the Christian faith as the backdrop and basis for his words and deeds in dealing with this crisis. It wasn\u2019t enough that peaceful protesters had just been deprived of their first-amendment rights\u2014this photo-op sought to legitimize that abuse with a layer of religion. To make matters worse, he was joined in the church photo-op by the other members of his staff and cabinet, including the press secretary, the chief of staff, and the national security advisor. Much worse still, he was joined in the picture by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Attorney General William Barr.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: Foreign Policy Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Moment of National Shame and Peril\u2014and Hope John Allen Gen. John Allen, the former commander of the Nato International Security Assistance Force and US forces in Afghanistan, recently penned a scathing essay published online by Foreign Policy magazine on June 03. In this essay, he has termed President Trump\u2019s threats to use the US …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10955,5,1,10962],"tags":[1161,10115,2541,537,3411,4541,258,2457,10271,8467,3790],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30472,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467\/revisions\/30472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}