Steve wrote a post “Democrats Reveal Why They Incited the Capitol Riot…” in which he said (reformatted, emphasis mine):
When you steal something precious or special, you need to protect it. The people from whom you took it might want it back. Democrats stole America, which is why they are proposing a permanent military presence in the US Capitol. Saddam, Adolf, Mao, Hugo, and Stalin would be so proud.
Democrats not only created the justification for the militarization of the Capitol of a “free” nation (staging and inciting a riot – probably with a lot of inside help), they then blamed it on their political opponents. To ensure their “safety” they will need a Quick Reaction Force…
That caught the eye of a Reader that has more than a bit of experience in this matter. He wrote to us and gave permission to post his thoughts:
Steve: I am a newcomer to Granitegrok and very much enjoy the content especially the daily updates. You really get to know what is going on in NH and its comforting to know that people are energized and engaged in maintaining our Republic and democracy as the Founders intended. Keep up the great work.
As a retired Army Flag Officer having spent many years in Washington now living in NH I thought I would provide you some comments from my “foxhole” after reading your article which may or may not be useful to you as background.
I believe that the idea the government is maintaining these forces in the region to protect themselves against their own citizens has some merit. Absent any identified “threat” I cant think of another reason. The capital is beginning to look a lot like the “Green Zone” in Iraq. I hope this is not the new normal in DC. If we are not careful, the next thing will be lining the road to National airport with “T Walls” as we did in Bagdad. We already seem to be restricting public travel inside the District.
My view is these forces are unnecessary. Furthermore, Calling in a Retired 3 Star from his retirement home in Louisiana working for the Speaker of the House to conduct some sort of quick assessment is bizarre to say the least. I was unaware that the Speaker is even in the military chain of command with ability to deploy and control military forces. Has that been done before? Don’t believe so.
Some general thoughts:
First, the National Capital Region in military terms is also the Military District of Washington. We have a full time 2 Star Major General in charge and among other forces, he commands the 3rd Infantry Regiment (Old Guard) the Army’s ceremonial unit stationed at nearby Fort Myer. It has as part of its mission statement the defense of Washington and it trains for that each year with various exercises.
Additional military forces are provided by the District of Columbia National Guard and they can be mobilized and deployed quickly. I see no reason for them to be sleeping in the Rotunda of the Capital.
The Army also has the responsibility for maintaining a global Quick Reaction Force (QRF). This force is normally composed of a ready Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division on alert 24/7 365 at Fort Bragg, N.C. The 82nd has trained and deployed this Brigade level force many times over the years. XVIII Airborne Corps also at Fort Bragg has an entire Military Police Brigade also capable of short notice deployment. The installation is also home to our elite “DELTA” forces. Fort Bragg then is one of our major “Power Projection Platforms” and as such it can “Project” power anywhere including Washington in a matter of hours. Building an “Ad Hoc” QRF out of National Guard Military Police units from around the country seems ill suited, redundant and costly.
Not to be left out would be all the other Special Operations Forces (SOF) units such as SEALS within DOD that are also on immediate alert and excel at counter terrorism which in my mind would be a more likely scenario and would be much more effective than large numbers of National Guard units.
In addition, if additional National Guard forces were need to be deployed to Washington, there are more than sufficient assets available in those adjacent states (Maryland, Virginia) to quickly mobilize, deploy and be committed including numerous Military Police units.
My comments in summary would be along the line of first having someone in charge actually state the threat we face that requires full time military forces to be deployed in such a manner. We size our military forces based on the threat and what capability that threat has. So far, I am unable to see where anyone in authority has identified the “threat”.
- What is the chain of command for these forces? Who in the department of Defense ordered their deployment?
- What organization has day to day command and control authority?
- What is their mission statement and who published the deployment order. Why is it not available for review?
- Have Rules of engagement (ROE) been published, what does it specifically say?
- Who does the DC Guard Commander report to? Is the Speaker of the House? Seems that this takes the traditional military out of the picture totally?
- The Armed Forces are experts at conducting “Threat Assessments” and we have numerous organizations that have that embedded capability. Why were they not used and why did we default to a retired flag officer with zero assets?
- If a “threat” actually exists would it not be appropriate to provide the general public with a travel alert that there is “risk” of (not sure what) but a travel advisory cautioning any vacation travel to Washington until further notice until military forces redeploy and the “Threat” is minimized?
- Does the Chief of Staff Army and the Chairman of the JCS support the “Honore Plan” are they even involved?
- Finally, What has been the cost to date for American taxpayers?
Our Congressional delegation has been silent on this topic and I believe it appropriate to ask them to answer some of these questions in a public forum to get their views on the record and attempt to justify this military show of force in the nations capital. This entire reaction has the appearance of being a back of the envelope operation.
In a follow up, the Reader adds:
Again, your article struck a cord with me and I simply cant rap my head around what is going on in Washington. With the exception maybe of our own civil war, have we ever seen a government so scared of its own citizens that it must put up a Berlin Wall type barrier between it and the people they supposedly represent.We seem to have a very ideology driven SECDEF today and therefore should anticipate more unusual activity that is not focused on the Armed Forces primary mission which is “to fight and win our nations wars”. Screening military personnel files and conducting stand downs to determine (non existent) Extremism in the ranks is a total distraction from our primary War fighting mission and the warrior ethos. At the end of the day, force readiness suffers. Both our adversaries as well as our very astute and perceptive soldiers can’t help but take notice.
The reader only wishes to be referred to as an “retired Army Flag Officer”. He’s wrong but only in one small nit:
Both our adversaries as well as our very astute and perceptive soldiers can’t help but take notice.
If little ‘ole GraniteGrok is noticing, you can bet the mortgage that other political types like us are watching this situation like hawks – this is not just unusual but in my mind, downright dangerous.
We’re hoping that we’ll be hearing more from the “retired Army Flag Officer”!
