- Defence Secretary, Esper, opposes active duty troop use as military decry racism, Floyd’s death
- Fears over Esper’s future as Defence Secretary
In an extraordinary rebuke, former U.S. defence secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday denounced President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed use of military force to quell protests near the White House and said his former boss was setting up a “false conflict” between the military and civilian society.
“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis wrote.
The criticism was all the more remarkable because Mattis has generally kept a low profile since resigning as defence secretary in December 2018 to protest Trump’s Syria policy. He had declined to speak out against Trump, saying he owed the nation public silence while his former boss remained in office.
But he’s speaking out after this past week’s protests in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody.
Trump responded on Twitter Wednesday evening by calling Mattis “the world’s most overrated General.”
“I didn’t like his `leadership’ style or much else about him, and many others agree,” Trump tweeted. “Glad he is gone!”
In the same vein, faced with growing outrage within the military about racism and George Floyd’s death, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday he opposes using active duty troops against American citizens.
In a surprising scene, Esper stood before the press at a hastily arranged press conference and said “the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort – and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
His comments raised the question of whether President Trump, who had pledged to use active duty troops if necessary, would fire Esper or demand his resignation.
But Esper acted as the depth of feeling among active duty personnel became clear. The first official public statement came when Kaleth Wright, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, penned a moving creed decrying Floyd’s death at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers.
Largely protesters of conscience, Mattis says
Mattis had a scathing description of Trump’s walk to a historic nearby church Monday to pose with a Bible after law enforcement forcibly cleared Lafayette Square of mostly peaceful protesters.
He said he never dreamed troops “would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people —does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
Mattis called on Americans to unite without Trump. “This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children,” he wrote.
Mattis said of the protesters that Americans should not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. He said they are rightly demanding that the country follow the words of “Equal Justice Under Law” that are on display at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation,” Mattis said.
Mattis took particular issue with the use of force to move back protesters so Trump could visit St. John’s Church the day after it was damaged by fire during protests. Several different groups, including the National Guard and the U.S. Park Police, were involved.
“We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution,” Mattis said.
One day after Trump announced he was pulling all U.S. troops out of Syria, where they were partnering with local Syrians to fight the Islamic State, Mattis tried but failed to change Trump’s mind. So, he resigned. Trump soon turned on Mattis, calling him a failure. He said falsely that he had fired Mattis.
“What’s he done for me?” Trump said Jan. 2. “How had he done in Afghanistan? Not too good. I’m not happy with what he’s done in Afghanistan, and I shouldn’t be happy.”
One of the only black Wing Commanders in the U.S. Air Force, Col. Devin Pepper, wrote another with the poignant title, “It Could’ve Been Me.” Pepper is commander of the 460th Space Wing at Buckley AFB. Then, the top officer in the Air Force, Gen. David Goldfein, in a Facebook post on his official page — which seemed the venue of choice for these public commitments — republished Wright’s piece and said this:
“I don’t have the answers, but I do know there is no room for bigotry, hatred or small mindedness in our force. Period. Every member of our team needs to know we have their back. So let’s start the conversation.”