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· Mark, the veteranFact-check: Pass

They Sent the National Guard to Fight Our Own Cities

An after-action report on troops deployed against Americans - from a guy who wore the uniform.

An after-action report on troops deployed against Americans - from a guy who wore the uniform.
Video coming soon

Honey? Honey, they did it again.

Worse than a war, Marge. They sent the Guard to patrol our own cities. So pull up a chair, because tonight we are doing an after-action report on the day the United States military got pointed at the United States. Here was the mission, the one I actually believed in: the Guard shows up for hurricanes, for floods, to defend this country from an enemy. Not to walk a beat in an American neighborhood.

Now what actually happened. They deployed the Guard into D.C., Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles. And this month a study came back on whether it even worked. The effect on violent crime? Zero. Nothing. And the response to nothing working was to announce they would double the numbers.

So let's talk money, because I can still read a budget. The Congressional Budget Office put the city deployments at nearly six hundred million dollars. And a report out of the Senate found the Defense Department committed over two billion to push troops into immigration work. Two billion dollars. For zero less crime. As one senator put it, the military budget is not a slush fund for the president's stunts.

$600M — CBO estimate for the city deployments - for zero drop in crime
CBO via Military.com

Now the casualties, and this is the part that gets me. These are not career soldiers. The Guard is your neighbors. A teacher, a nurse, a mechanic, pulled out of their job and away from their kids to go stand on a corner with a rifle, doing a job with no military purpose at all. Nearly eighty percent of D.C. said they did not want them there. The Supreme Court itself blocked the deployment to Chicago. Everybody saw it but the man who ordered it.

80 — of D.C. residents opposed the deployment
CNN poll

So here is the honest assessment, the part nobody in charge wants to sit through. I took an oath to protect Americans from enemies. The kid mowing his lawn in Chicago is not an enemy. The lady on the bus in D.C. is not an enemy. They are the neighbors. They are exactly who we put the uniform on to protect. You do not aim the troops at the people. Anyway. Facts are hard to argue with. I'm Mark.

THE HONEST ASSESSMENT

  • The Guard is for floods and enemies
  • Not a beat cop against your neighbors
  • The neighbor isn't the enemy - he's who we protect

Sources