Pentagon preparing “reaction force” to crush protests
Donald Trump’s Aug. 11 news conference announcing his hijacking of Washington, D.C.’s police force was a racist tirade of lies and threats. The wannabe dictator claimed that the capital “has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”
When Trump talks about “violent gangs” and “roving mobs of wild youth,” he’s talking about rounding up Black and Brown people. Every day, Washington is becoming more and more of a police state, although it was already occupied by thousands of armed personnel from a dozen different government agencies.
Trump told police that “they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.” To hell with the Bill of Rights or any other constitutional safeguard.
That’s like Nixon calling students protesting the Vietnam War “bums” just before the Ohio National Guard killed four Kent State students in 1970.
People are being stopped at checkpoints. Sean Dunn was arrested on felony charges near one for allegedly throwing a submarine sandwich towards a cop.
Immigrants and homeless people are special targets. Trump vows to drive homeless people “far from the capital” as encampments are being torn down. The biggest crime under capitalism is to be poor.
Trump said that he was “looking into” overthrowing Washington, D.C.’s municipal government by revoking home rule for the federal territory. Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles have already introduced bills in Congress to do so. The Tennessee statesman and Islamophobic bigot is also demanding that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani be deported.
Preparing to crush resistance
At his news conference, Trump threatened to send troops to Chicago, New York City, Baltimore and Oakland, California, after already doing so in Los Angeles. All these cities have Black mayors.
As Larry Hamm, chairperson of the New Jersey-based People’s Organization for Progress, pointed out, “Trump’s attack on Washington, D.C., is an attack on Black self-determination and Black political power which are seen as obstacles by white supremacists to their apartheid agenda for the U.S.”
It’s been revealed that the Pentagon is preparing secret plans to establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” to crush anti-Trump protests. “The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour,” according to the Washington Post.
Back in 2020, when millions of people took to the streets during the Black Lives Matter movement, Trump wanted to declare martial law. Will this “Quick Reaction Force” also be used to help cancel the 2026 or 2028 elections?
The scheme’s author is Elbridge Colby, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for policy. Colby is primarily known as an anti-China war hawk.
It’s another example of the link between U.S. imperialism’s wars abroad and its continuous war against poor people at home. Future Pentagon bosses Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney dismantled anti-poverty programs for Nixon.
One of Colby’s grandfathers was the late war criminal and CIA director William Colby. During the Vietnam War, the senior Colby was head of Operation Phoenix, which assassinated thousands of Vietnamese people.
A 600-strong “Quick Reaction Force” might be too small to stop hundreds of thousands of people from protesting. Is it being prepared to take out movement organizers instead?
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