Several service members told advocacy groups they felt like pawns in a political game and assignment was unnecessary
California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.
Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.
“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans.
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They are doing something. Morale and the degree of willingness to carry out orders is huge. Without moral and emotional buy-in from the technicians in the field performing the actual operation, the effectiveness of a task force, no matter how well equipped and trained, is severely diminished. Leadership is going to have a hard time keeping them engaged, especially if leadership itself is feeling the exact same reluctance and disgust.
What you’re asking for is an outright mutiny and that’s not going to happen. Dragging of feet and forgetting certain details of certain orders is the soft mutiny, or malicious compliance, you can hope for, civilian. Armies make or break revolutions based on how much they’re willing to step aside to let the civilian dissidents get their way.
They haven’t been ordered to do something patently illegal as of yet.
Disobeying an order can carry a sharp penalty for soldiers and it’s frankly not worth the risk when the dubious order is to guard a federal building from people who pose no threat.
You want the military to strongly resist illegal orders, but having the military decide policy is a dangerous line to cross.