What Is Our Military For?

U.S. Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division walk to their assignment at the Wilshire Federal Building, ahead of Saturday’s nationwide “No Kings Day” protest, in Los Angeles, Calif., Friday, June 13, 2025. (Photo by Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

As noted in a recent report by the Center for American Progress, in 2022 Donald Trump stated that “the next President should use every power at his disposal to restore order — and, if necessary, that includes sending in the National Guard or the troops” to conduct law enforcement activities on U.S. soil. In 2023, said that if restored to office, that he he would send troops to U.S. cities to combat crime: “The next time, I’m not waiting. … We don’t have to wait any longer.” Ominously, the president has talked of using troops to combat ”the enemy within.”

That time has come. Earlier this year the Trump administration deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles to deal with immigration protests. At the time, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said “We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops.”

The new target of troops deploying to a U.S. city is in Washington, DC. On Saturday August 16th West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey annnounced a plan to deploy hundreds of National Guard member of his state’s National Guard to Washington, DC, stating that “West Virginia is proud to stand with President [Donald]

Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation’s capital.”

The question is why? Violent crime in Washington, DC is projected to be down 26% this year from 2024. The demonstrations in Los Angeles were overwhelmingly peacaful until the show of force – police, National Guard and Marines – prompted clashes between protesters and military and law enforcement officials. Local law enforcement officers have gone so far as to fire munitions that have left both protesters and journalists injured.

Many veterans have taken exception to the deployments, and some have filed an amicus brief in support of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s opposition to the troop presence. One of them, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, said “This is the politicisation of the armed forces. It casts the military in a terrible light.”

President Trump’s rationale for sending troops into U.S. cities is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which does indeed allow the president to deploy troops for domestic law enforcement in the event of an insurrection. But neither the immigration protests in Los Angeles nor the crime rate in DC qualify as an insurrection, by any stretch of the imagination. The deployments are deeply disturbing, and should be questioned by our elected leaders across the spectrum, along with veterans and average citizens concerned about federal overreach. Questions about the troop deployments need to be louder and more persistent. This is not a partisan issue. It is a basic issue about the role of the. military in a democracy. We can’t afford to ignore it and go about business as usual.