Police Action: That’s Not The Military’s Job

The U.S. has a long history of … misusing its military, but since 2001 this habit of using its military for things that it really shouldn’t get involved in has greatly accelerated.

Things that are not the military’s job.

The entire response to the hijackings of that year, for example, was a job for the police. There was no legitimate role for the military in that response at all, and using the military for it instead of police has very much not improved the situation.

And, obviously, Trump’s various deployments to cities around the country should not be military. Even if, as he appears to believe, these cities were actually experiencing elevated levels of violent crime addressing it would still not be a legitimate military task.

They’re not, by the way; violent crime was at historically low levels in most of the country and specifically in these particular cities, so claims that these cities are urban hellscapes are absurd.

But even if they were, that would still be a police job not a military one.

This should be obvious: the military is there to deal with other militaries, the police are there for dealing with crime.

This distinction is not subtle; it’s fundamental to what these organizations within the State are.

Misusing them strains the idea that the U.S. is in any way a legitimate State.

And now I’m seeing calls from the left for the U.S. military to deal with Trump.

This is a really, really bad idea.

Yes, the things Trump and his cronies are doing are a coup, at least in the non-scholarly usage of the word.

But, without any other military force being involved, that is still a matter for the police.

It is not the military’s role to remove the elected civilian government under any circumstances, because if it were then the military would be empowered to remove the elected civilian government under any circumstances.

And that would be very, very bad.

The military’s only role here is to refuse or ignore illegal orders; the fact that they’ve so far failed at this is bad enough, we do not need them involved in police work as well.

It is the job of the police and the courts to deal with illegal activities by government officials. Yes, the current U.S. system is badly designed for that, and is clearly not handling the situation very well. We should very much remember that problem when we’re deciding what system to replace it with.

But the military removing the President would not improve the situation.

The military cannot, and should not try to, solve this problem.

Misbehavior by the civilian government is not a military issue, and there is nothing that anyone in the military can do that would actually help other than to stay on their bases and keep calm.

This is not a military matter; it’s a job for the police.

And if they cannot or will not deal with it, it’s a job for the citizens.