The author was trying to shield themselves from the despair of political doomscrolling by reading books, but was dismayed to learn of Trump’s plans to declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. The author speaks with anti-imperialist veteran friends who remind them that this is not the first time Trump has threatened to deploy the military against immigrants, and that actually carrying out such a plan would be a logistical and legal nightmare, requiring a massive expansion of the prison system at immense cost. The author argues that the only reasonable response for active-duty soldiers is to refuse to carry out these immoral orders, drawing parallels to the G.I. resistance during the Vietnam War. They advocate reviving networks of support like “G.I. coffeehouses” to provide a space for soldiers to organize and resist. Experts emphasize that troops have a moral responsibility to disobey illegal and immoral orders, and that immigrants are not the true enemy - it is the ruling class elite who are stealing from the working class. The author acknowledges the impulse to retreat into escapism, but argues that now is the time to collectively challenge these dangerous policies.
All the military guys i’ve ever met have been super racist so I’m not counting on it.
The whole mass deportation thing is blatantly absurd. There won’t be a mass deportation. There might be an attempt at a mass deportation, but there’s no way a bunch of guys who can’t figure out how to book a room at the Four Seasons are gonna figure out all the problems. There’s just not the resources or other places to detain, move, and deposit that many people. It’s the Wall Part II. It’s just gonna be the existing policy, but with press conferences claiming they did something.
To be a little fair, the military is very competent when it wants to be. If the military was onboard with the plan then the most competence the Trump team would need would be to give them the order. They’d start cordon and searches on the daily.
The military isn’t on board though.
Yeah the military will do the equivalent of shuffling around the same 4 papers making themselves look busy. They may be deployed somewhat but yet again its the military, ive met a couple E4 vets and those bastards could procrastinate and maliciously comply like no other I can only imagine what a general or major could do.
Most officers had to figure out malicious compliance early in their careers too. For the ones that didn’t, they have a Sergeant Major, who most assuredly spent time as an E-4.
There won’t be a mass deportation. There might be an attempt at a mass deportation, but there’s no way a bunch of guys who can’t figure out how to book a room at the Four Seasons are gonna figure out all the problems. There’s just not the resources or other places to detain, move, and deposit that many people.
You are right, and it’s not like there isn’t historical precedent showing them that deportation is just not a workable final solution for what they are trying to do. When they figure that out, they’ll probably make the same choice the other guys did.
Its actually really easy to deport a ton of people if you have guns and don’t care if you are accidentally deporting the wrong people
Y’all always getting the enlisted men mixed up with the officers. They are not the same. The officers, from the top down, will not go for this.
Been saying since the first Trump admin, he will eventually enlist civilian bully-boys for the task. Red Shirts if you will. It’s obvious the military brass won’t go along. It’s obvious there’s not enough state or local officers, of any kind, to do this.
And lookee here! Steve Bannon’s already saying the obvious and talking about enlisting “local help”. Perhaps we shall call them Committees of Public Safety?
If I was a fascist looking to carry out mass deportations I would probably just give federal badges to young veterans and police officers willing to do so. I get mass deportations with no resistance in the ranks and a powerful paramilitary force I can deploy to squash protests after my secret police of convicted white supremacists infiltrated them and caused violence.
Sure it might take a few months to setup and a few years to really get going but it will be faster than trying to burn through enough officers to get an entire chain of command willing to follow illegal orders.
The US military is aggressively apolitical. They’re not going to refuse orders from the CiC without those orders being blatantly and explicitly illegal.
For someone that likes their world history, you really haven’t learned much from US history.
My argument here is that the US military is absolutely going to cooperate.
The orders will be blatantly and aggressively illegal though…
More likely is that they’ll go through a lawyer to be worded in such a way as suggests ambiguity of legality insofar as the responsibility of the US military to follow the orders is concerned.
Pretty sure Trump’s going to post it on Twitter at 10pm, but we’ll see.
I mean, it doesn’t matter what Trump says initially. Like how the Muslim-ban definitely wasn’t a Muslim-ban once it was challenged. The lawyers will shift the argument while Trump continues using the rhetoric.
“Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”
– Richard Nixon.
More likely is that all the business owners employing undocumented immigrants will whine about it — like has happened in Florida and Texas whenever their legislatures are on the verge of passing some law that would take away their cheap labor.
The end game of this would be a military coup of the US government which is probably not the worst thing that could happen. Sadly i am not confident that the soldiers have the balls to do it.
I mean maybe not the worst but pretty fucking bad I’d say. Look at Egypt. Just because your enemy is in power doesn’t mean a military junta would be better.
So, are you guys all in favor of just “leaving them alone?” Serious question, should there be no repercussions for illegal immigration?
Yep, all in. I feel there should be freedom of movement. I am in the minority perhaps. Most people want “reasonable restrictions”. In my experience this always raised my grocery prices and reduced my friends.
I think most people really don’t care one way or the other. Some people want all them far away, but here in Texas this is normally older anglos who yearn for yesterday and are scared about Spanish. But even most of those don’t have too strong feelings about it
Like trans rights, these are all blown out of proportion on national tv and newspapers. Most people really don’t care here
Not at a military level, no. Law enforcement is more than adequately equipped to handle it.
I’ve got to be honest. It’s a non issue for me. I can’t figure out why people always get so pissed off about it, or why those people are usually the least likely to have interacted with an immigrant (legal or otherwise). Seriously, what do they care? I don’t think governments have any right to disrupt the natural flow of people from one place to another.
“but was dismayed to learn of Trump’s plans to declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants”>
What?!? You mean the author had no idea about this “plan” DT wouldn’t shut up about for the past 9 years?
I think our media is problematic
Fucking good luck with that. It can’t happen if the people resist. Put your bodies on the line for your neighbors.
This is exactly why it will unfortunately work. You go to far too many doctors dentist whatever’s offices. You will see Fox News or worse. Even at the VA you’ll see Fox News etc. When it comes to the officer core and career military people you might see some push back. But most of the enlisted will be on board for this day one sadly.
Its amazing how much propaganda Americans are exposed to on a dailly basis.
Hollywood basically a propaganda machine that always paints the US as a superior power.
News agencies at all levels repeating the same stories from a predefined script.
The military is about 60/40 partisan. But beyond that they are also extremely pro Constitution. It’s entirely possible that they agree mass deportations are necessary, but will not follow the illegal order to go round them up. There’s not a whole lot of hardcore MAGA beyond the low ranks because Trump has spent the last 9 years insulting the military in every way he can. Including denying casualties and stealing school funding for military kids. No amount of Fox News allows the combat arms community to forget stuff like that.
The very idea that the military is all die hard Republican is a Fox News myth.
Alternative headline: Why It Will Definitely Happen
Who gets to say what is illegal or immoral though? Seems denying an illegal genocide has it’s consequences.
The law says what’s illegal.
Morals tell you what isn’t.
I have no clue how you arrived at the second sentence.
If you condition your soldiers to accept the illegal acts of others, then it is psychologically easier for them to conduct illegal themselves.
And other concepts of evil.
