Our nation's military is bestowed to the nation by the Constitution & our contributions; as a defense not an imposition
...indeed, that's why every American military officer swears an oath that begins with ten critical words: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Accordingly, the preamble to our Constitution says one of the key responsibilities of government is to “provide for the common defense.”
Our nation's troops exist to defend us, not police us. But as Senator Mark Kelly wrote on X today,
"We have the most lethal military in the world. All of this (parades, picking up garbage in US cities and unnecessary meetings) distracts from the mission and if anything makes us less lethal. This is what you get when you install the Saturday morning news guy as Secretary of Defense."
Trump spoke of an 'enemy within' today in front of generals who had to have been wondering as they were listening to Trump how all of their schooling and study could have been so wrong about the extremely limited role of our military within the U.S..
"And I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, national guard, but military, because we're going into Chicago very soon."
What must those generals have been thinking when Trump essentially declared 'war' on Democratic cities.
Did the generals who would command troops into an American city ask themselves whether that mission was now compromised by the president's politically-charged directive which intends their forces to be arrayed and executed against what are, rhetorically, this president's political 'enemies' in the cities he ticked off to the generals like military targets.
In fact, he said as much...
"It seems that the ones that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places, and we're going to straighten them out one by one," the president asserted. "And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war too. It's a war from within."
I just read that the troops patrolling D.C. and elsewhere aren't getting paid in a shutdown. Their last check is Oct. 1, and most report about $500. in the bank.
Likewise, ICE agents will also presumably be working without pay.
Wouldn't it be the crowning indignity to Americans if Trump approves their pay first to keep them on the job repressing the American people on his behalf?
After all, it's the generals' ordered mission now.