Dear Friends,                                                                 Don’t send in the Marines!

Sending Marines to LA is another indication that Trump is determined to have his ultimate dream reality show: American troops shooting Americans in the streets. Dream, but it’ll be for real. This is terrifying. It can happen here.

So there’s another thing that may not make much difference, but: sending Marines to do crowd control is just one more instance of what happens when government – including the Pentagon – is turned over to vicious, death-loving and stupid incompetents.

The Marine Corps is an elite formation, Marines are shock troops. Crowd control just isn’t their thing. Unfortunately, this was born out by the death of 241 American service members including 220 Marines in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, October 23, 1983. The Reagan Administration had deployed 800 Marines to Lebanon in August 1982, to assist in peace-keeping operations by the UN during the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. United Nations officials tried to explain to the Administration that the objective was peace-keeping, and that shock troops are the worst military formations for that objective. They were unsuccessful.

Unfortunately, another example is more directly relevant. On 30 January 1972, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 26 unarmed protesters were killed by British troops. This was a peaceful demonstration. Bloody Sunday, as it is now known, ensured that the so-called Irish Troubles would continue for decades.

The troops who fired on unarmed and peaceful protesters were members of the British Parachute Regiment. The Parachute Regiment is an elite formation. Paratroops are trained to fight under extremely unpleasant conditions behind enemy lines. They should not be anywhere near a peaceful demonstration, or even a violent one.

The Reagan Administration must be blamed for deploying Marines to Lebanon, if they were going to deploy anyone at all. But there was an actual war – or two – going on at the time. Stupid, not really malicious – and it was American service members who suffered.

Trump’s deployment of Marines to LA is an entirely different thing, it is only malice,  cruelty, lust for killing. I doubt that he or anyone around him including his Secretary of Defense, understands the specific purposes of elite formations, of shock troops. But in his very ignorance he has made the perfect move so that the cameras can start rolling for the dream scene … “Ready when you are, Mr …”

Love and solidarity,

            Bobby