With the outbreak of widespread protests in dozens of American cities, against the background of the killing of George Floyd by a policeman in the city of Minneapolis, attention in the country has been limited to two main issues. The first is racism towards African Americans, and the other is the army's relations with the people.

President Donald Trump has threatened to resort to the "counterinsurgency" law, which allows the president to deploy the military in American cities in exceptional cases, such as insurrection, obstruction of the law, natural disaster, or terrorist attack.

"If a city or state refuses to make the decisions necessary to defend the lives of its residents and their property, I will deploy the US military to solve the problem quickly," Trump said in press statements on Friday.

The year 1992 was the last time the aforementioned law was used at the request of the governor of the state of California in the west of the country to deal with the so-called Los Angeles riots, which followed the decision to acquit four police officers of the murder of an African-American citizen, Rodney King.

The American armed forces are deployed on several levels. There is the federal national level, and there is the national guard for each state separately, but everyone is subject to the elected officials of the mayors and governors of the states, up to the president who holds the position of supreme commander of the armed forces, and it is rare for the president of the country to resort to The politicization of the army, especially in an election year such as this year.

The US authorities do not operate a system of compulsory military service, but the military relies on volunteers.

Criticism of the military
A number of former senior military officials launched a sharp attack on Trump on the grounds that he called the army to control protests against Floyd’s killing in Washington, DC, as they considered it a violation of the balance of the established civil military relations.

"James Donald Trump is the first president in my life who does not try to unite Americans, but he does not even pretend that he is trying to do that, but rather he is trying to divide us," General James Mattis - the first Trump defense secretary in Trump's era - told him. Threat to the constitution.

The former Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, also sees that there are two very dangerous points in what is going on. The first is to describe the challenge in front of the army, who can control the "battlefield" as if we are facing the enemy, and the second point is just thinking about calling the armed forces to suppress the mostly peaceful demonstrators .

And the current US Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, made statements that distanced himself and his cabinet from President Trump's decision to clear the Lafayette park facing the White House from the demonstrators, so that he could take a picture at the historic St. John's Church.

Minister Esber said that he opposes the deployment of the army to control the protests, "the army vowed to defend the rights and freedoms of citizens," but the appearance of Defense Minister and Chief of Staff Mark Miley next to Trump when he walked to St. John's Church was a massive shock to followers.

I highly recommend you to watch this movie, which tells the true story that happened in New York City for black teenagers. How the police destroyed their lives. How # Trump sought to execute them. It may help you to understand the intensity of the injustice that blacks are exposed to at the hands of the police and the judicial system. pic.twitter.com/vhOsRl4NMi

- Samar D Jarrah (@SamarDJarrah) June 5, 2020

Historic Stations of the
United States: A turbulent historical relationship with its soldiers of African descent. The country witnessed the participation of military units of this race in its foreign wars, starting from World War I, with a commitment to apply the system of apartheid within the army, and after the end of World War II the former president issued Henry Truman in 1948 an executive order ending the apartheid that was used in the army.

Gen. Colin Powell was the first African-American to come to the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the largest military post in the United States, since the position of Secretary of Defense is political, when President George Washington Sr. Powell chose this position in 1989.

African Americans represent 17% of the total US forces of 1.35 million, according to a study published by the Pew Research Institute in 2018.

As a result of the absence of the system of compulsory recruitment, the percentage of minorities within all branches of the American forces increases annually, but some experts fear the impact of the current unrest on attracting young people of African descent to join the army.

A tendency to the military
Trump's desire to call the army to suppress the protests was consistent with his admiration for the American military, as demonstrated by two levels since he assumed the presidency in January 2016.

The first level was Trump's selection of the figures who held the most senior positions in his administration. Contrary to the legal requirements in effect, the President came with General Mattis as Secretary of Defense, the position most of America's presidents are accustomed to naming civil figures in.

Mattis' assumption of the post required the approval of the Senate, after being exempted from a law banning ex-military personnel from holding the position of defense minister for seven years after their retirement.

Trump also appointed former general Michael Flynn as a national security adviser, and when he was forced to replace him later he chose another general, HR McMaster, named the former military chief of Homeland Security in the person of General John Kelly, and former military Mike Pompeo as director of the CIA ), Then Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Trump's inclination to the military also appeared in the increase in the budget allocations for the Ministry of Defense, which in the years of the current president's rule totaled 2.7 trillion dollars.

Electoral flirtation
Trump has not forgotten the flirtation of a highly important military electorate, the veterans group of over nine million, as well as a 6% increase in their government budget allocations (the equivalent of $ 4.4 billion).

The US constitution allows the military to vote in elections, unlike in many electoral systems around the world, and Trump hopes to reap the votes of military voters, as happened in the 2016 elections.