WASHINGTON — Senior Pentagon leaders have a lot to worry about — Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, China, Somalia, the Korean Peninsula. But chief among those concerns is whether their commander in chief might order American troops into any chaos around the coming elections.
President Trump gave officials no solace on Wednesday and Thursday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election, and on Thursday, he doubled down by saying he was not sure the election could be “honest.” His hedging, along with his expressed desire in June to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops onto American streets to quell protests over the killing of George Floyd, has incited deep anxiety among senior military and Defense Department leaders, who insist they will do all they can to keep the armed forces out of the elections.
“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military,” General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written answers to questions from House lawmakers released last month. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S. armed forces in this process.”
But that has not stopped an intensifying debate in the military about its role should a disputed election lead to civil unrest.
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WNU Editor: In a worse case scenario I do not see how the military cannot stay uninvolved. If on election night and/or the day (or days) after the election the returns show President Trump winning the election and the reaction are massive riots in cities coupled with inaction from Democrat city mayors and Democrat governors because they have made the decision to let this unrest explode .... the National Guard and probably regular military forces will be deployed whether the Pentagon's leadership wants it or not. But I do not see this scenario happening. The more likely scenario is this one. Regardless of who wins the unrest will continue, but the reaction from the White House will be more severe. A President Trump and/or President Biden cannot let this continue, and will use their mandate to quickly end these protests peacefully through persuasion, threats, or (finally) with force.
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