Accused of being used by Donald Trump for political purposes, the Pentagon sought Tuesday to distance itself from the American president after polemical remarks by Defense Minister Mark Esper and the deployment of military reinforcements around the White House.
In a country where the military is revered, Pentagon chief Mark Esper has raised concerns by saying Monday that law enforcement must "dominate the battlefield" to restore order, as hundreds of thousands Americans protest police brutality, racism and social inequality exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis.
Mark Esper and the United States Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, also displayed themselves alongside Donald Trump when he walked Monday evening in front of Saint John Church, an emblematic building near the White House, degraded the day before on the sidelines of a demonstration.
Mark Esper was in the front row of administration officials, near Donald Trump, when he was photographed in front of the church with a bible in his hand, a few minutes after the brutal dispersion, with batons and tear gas, protesters protesting peacefully near the White House. General Milley was filmed walking in camouflage behind Donald Trump. Images quickly taken up by the White House in a video with electoral overtones.
"America is not a battlefield"
All of this has caused dismay in the Democratic opposition and among former military officials. “America is not a battlefield. Our citizens are not the enemy, ”tweeted a former American chief of staff, ex-general Martin Dempsey. A senior Pentagon official assured that by speaking of the "battlefield", Mark Esper had no ulterior motives, and that the former soldier himself was just speaking in "military jargon" .
As for the presence of General Milley behind the American president during an exit from the White House visibly political, it would have been involuntary, added this senior official who requested anonymity. The president told them "that he wanted to see the troops deployed outside," he said, ensuring that neither Mark Esper nor General Milley "knew that the police had decided to evacuate »the area.
Congress picked up the case. The influential chairman of the House of Representatives' Armed Forces Committee, Adam Smith, worried on Tuesday about President Trump's "autocratic" leadership and "how it affects the judgment of the military." "The role of the US military in maintaining order in the territory is limited by law," he said. Indeed, a law prohibits the use of active soldiers in law enforcement missions, except in the event of an insurrection. In the event of public disorder, it is up to each American state to call on former reservist police officers from the National Guard.
Palpable discomfort among the military
Minorities are widely represented in the U.S. military, seen as a social elevator, and discomfort was palpable among the military a week after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man asphyxiated by a white police officer.
"I am George Floyd," tweeted US Air Force adjutant Kaleth Wright, one of the most prominent black military personnel, among others. "Like most black airmen, I am outraged to see another black man die on television before our eyes." "What happens too often in this country to black men victims of police brutality (...) could happen to me," he added in messages that received a wide response.
In particular, he received public support from the highest ranking Air Force officer, General Dave Goldstein, who in a letter to unit commanders called the death of George Floyd a "national tragedy" and announced that 'He would participate on Wednesday with Warrant Officer Wright in an online debate on racism.
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