OUR MILITARY IN DECLINE: Why Did The Guam National Guard Visit Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Office At The Capitol Yesterday?
I can’t understand how anyone involved in this thought it was a good idea but it’s not the first time lately that the military has bent the rules against service members playing politics while in uniform in order to embarrass a populist Republican. The Marine Corps had to apologize for unprofessional behavior a few days ago when one of its social-media accounts started snarking at Tucker Carlson for wondering why pregnant women are allowed to serve. The Pentagon went so far as to issue a press release responding to Carlson with the clickbait-y headline, “Press Secretary Smites Fox Host That Dissed Diversity in U.S. Military.”
A Twitter pal recently observed that the U.S. military has received withering criticism in the post-9/11 age about life-and-death matters like the occupation of Iraq and counterterrorist drone strikes in remote lands and they’ve endured it (mostly) in silence, which is proper in a country where civilians are in charge. Cross certain lines of wokeness, though, and it turns out that even the Marines have their breaking point. When did owning the cons become part of the defense department’s mission? . . .
They wanted some footage of Greene looking sheepish and maybe having to answer some embarrassing questions and so they brought in the Guard as props to heighten the embarrassment — again, in uniform, knowing that soldiers aren’t supposed to engage in political activity when they’re not in civilian attire.
I assume these troops were at the Capitol to begin with because they’re stationed there as part of the security effort after January 6. Did San Nicolas pull them off duty to make this stunt happen? If not, what was the process by which he convinced uniformed Guardsmen to join him for a visit to a congresswoman’s office for the purpose of humiliating her? Did their C.O. order them to accompany him? We deserve some answers on how this happened. As others have pointed out, if Ted Cruz had marched over to, say, AOC’s office with members of the Texas National Guard in tow hoping to embarrass her somehow, the media would be awash in hot takes today about violent intimidation and improper political use of the military.
Greene’s staff handled it well, to their credit.
The CO should be cashiered for allowing this, but won’t be.