Almost a year and a half ago I published a short post titled: Following Orders. I was musing about how a future Trump administration might deploy the military within the country's borders. Fast forward to the present and we're learning more about this almost every day; and while I am famous for bad predictions that post from April of 2024 was seemingly prescient.
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| J. Scott Applewhite / AP |
I've never served in the military; consequently I can only speak as a civilian. What I think I know is that fundamentally there are significant differences between local law enforcement officers and army national guard soldiers.
Civilian law enforcement academies and technical colleges focus on things like criminal law, civil rights, de-escalation and community engagement. Day-to-day law enforcement includes enforcing criminal law, traffic safety, conducting investigations and community policing. Sheriff deputies and police officers are seen as front line guardians of law and order. And, at least where I live, they are a familiar presence as a consequence of daily interaction with the local population.
National guard soldiers receive military training including things like combat readiness, tactical operations, discipline and a military occupational specialty. Some military police units train for law enforcement, but their orientation is different from civilian policing. Guard units are populated by citizen soldiers who have civilian jobs or perhaps attend school while training part-time and sharpening their readiness to act when called upon by their state governor or the President.
Nevertheless, national guard troops do serve in temporary support roles. This can include crowd and riot control, (civil unrest events), disaster response (hurricanes, floods, wildfires), infrastructure protection (power plants, airports, hospitals) and augmenting first responders when local resources are overwhelmed.
Mostly, the guard is our federal reserve force for wartime missions and overseas deployment. They blow stuff-up, defeat opposing forces and achieve battlefield dominance. Soldiers are war-fighters; modern day gladiators.
Between you and me I think having armed troops on our main streets is unsustainable for the long term. It is an expensive short-term fix. Furthermore, it is poor optics; if it were to happen around here the tourists would stay home and businesses would be grumpy. The former is fact the latter is opinion.
There has been chatter on social media including people suggesting that president Trump is seeking to accomplish a couple of things; namely the normalization of military deployments to conduct law enforcement. Secondly, provoking some kook or nutjob to commit an act of political violence thereby escalating tensions by such means that he can invoke the insurrection act, declare martial law and suspend elections. Sounds rather conspiratorial, eh? Inexplicably, most of my previously self-identified libertarian acquaintances have gone silent on this subject so we can save a discussion of the Posse Comitatus Act for another day.
I happen to believe that Donald Trump eventually gets around to attempting everything he says he wants to do. And he has repeatedly said he would consider or invoke the Insurrection Act, including in public statements in June 2025 during his current presidency.
Meanwhile, Speaker Michael Johnson's home state of Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, boast some of the the highest murder rates in the country. One has to wonder why Governor Jeff Landry called-up and deployed Louisiana guard troops to Washington, DC; instead of Speaker Johnson's home district? The correct answer is political theater; nevertheless, all of this can be combustible. See paragraph eight (above) about the president shouting Fire! in an otherwise quiet theater.
The administration is populated with pliant sycophants who will unquestionably act on the president's orders. Therefore, the execution of sketchy orders will fall to the next line of senior military officers.
It is gonna be interesting how this unfolds.....
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