WASHINGTON _ The nation's top military leaders, caught off-guard accompanying President Donald Trump to a photo op after nonviolent protesters were dispersed with military support, reached out to service members afterward with a message: This is not what we're about.
"We all committed our lives to the idea that is America," Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote by hand at the end of a memo about the military's defense of all Americans, and their constitutional right to protest. "We will stay true to that oath and the American people."
The June 2 memo was sent to all service members and made public Wednesday by the Joint Chiefs in a tweet.
"Every member of the U.S. military swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the values embedded within it," Milley wrote. "This document is founded on the essential principles that all men and women are born free and equal and should be treated with respect and dignity. It also gives Americans the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly."
His message and another one from Defense Secretary Mark Esper come after nights of sometimes violent protests across the nation and a fatal shooting of a Louisville, Ky., restaurant owner during a police response to disperse crowds by Kentucky law enforcement and two Kentucky National Guard members on Sunday night.
The messages from the top military officials also come after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow active-duty troops under his control to conduct law enforcement operations on U.S. soil.
Late Wednesday, former Defense Secretary James Mattis added his voice to the dissent, saying Trump was in violation of the Constitution.
"When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution," Mattis wrote in a lengthy statement in The Atlantic. "Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens _ much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside."
Currently serving military officers said the messages from Esper and Milley were needed to reinforce to military personnel that the principles by which the armed forces operate had not changed.
"I saw what he was doing almost immediately in his opening statement," one currently serving National Guard officer said of Milley's note. "Given the temperature as it was, we needed something like that to have everyone take a breath."
Larry Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former assistant secretary of defense for President Ronald Reagan, said military leadership probably sought to distance the military from what had become a highly politicized response by the White House to George Floyd's death.
"I'm not surprised, I think Milley was probably flabbergasted the other day when the president got him involved in the protest," Korb said.
Esper issuing a memo was of particular significance, Korb said, given that he was appointed by Trump and has gone along with many recent high-profile and controversial decisions, such as intervening in the case of former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.
"They probably thought the institution was in trouble," Korb said. "The fact that Esper also spoke to it too was really significant because he's been pretty much going along."
In his message, Esper underscored his support of the right to protest. "I, like you, am steadfast in my belief that Americans who are frustrated, angry, and seeking to be heard must be ensured that opportunity."
Both Milley and Esper's messages were sent against the backdrop of the president threatening to use the Insurrection Act to send active duty troops into Washington, D.C., and other cities to stop the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
Mattis said Trump's actions threaten the very oath service members take to protect the country and its citizens.
"Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict _ a false conflict _ between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part," Mattis said.
Korb said that was likely what alarmed some of the service members the most _ the idea of attacking their own towns. He added that many of the members of the National Guard and active duty military who were deployed overseas had seen first-hand the bloodshed that occurred during protests in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Look, these kids out here are wondering what in the heck is going on," Korb said. "They don't want to put down people in their own hometowns. They are from all over and they are looking at these cities thinking, 'My God, you want to send me in there?'"
Defense officials on the condition they not be identified told reporters Tuesday that Esper and Milley had not expected to come to the White House, and during Trump's Rose Garden statement, had not known that law enforcement, backed up by National Guard troops, had forced protesters out of Lafayette Square so the president could walk to St. John's Episcopal Church and be photographed holding a Bible.
Esper, in a news conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday, also tried to distance the military from appearing to support suppressing the protest.
"I was not aware a photo op was happening," Esper told reporters. "I do everything I can to try to stay apolitical, and try to stay out of situations that may appear political. "Sometimes I'm successful in doing that. Sometimes I'm not as successful."
Retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Joe Plenzler said the messages from military leaders were a needed reminder of the military's moral obligations.
"Our founders knew that a standing army presented the greatest threat to liberty, which is why they designed our Constitution and civil-military relations the way they have," Plenzler said in a phone interview. "It's entirely appropriate for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to remind all service members and especially the officers that lead the military of their moral obligations to uphold the Constitution and that we are loyal to that founding document."
