> Those excuses are built on a revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants.
And nowhere in the op-ed did he call for murdering or killing anyone.
Killing is what the military does.
Trump has declared that the protests are lead by terrorist "Antifa".
The police were already gassing, shooting and brutalizing protesters.
I don't know what other conclusion to draw about what "overwhelming force" and "dominating" would mean in this context besides murdering people.
Here in Seattle, it wasn't the rioters and looters who were attacked by police, it was mostly peaceful, non-violent protesters.
One might even imagine that the two are deliberately conflated.
> disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers
It could mean that you do a show of force so strong that the opposing side gives up. In this case he was probably referring to putting so many policemen/national guard out there that they could disperse and detain all of the looters and rioters. This would likely prevent further looting and rioting as people would see that they would likely get caught.
So any troublemakers would think twice about trying to hit an area to sew chaos (looting, rioting, setting property on fire, etc.)
The thing about the whole argument of, 'we only advocate cracking down on rioters and looters' is how is someone supposed to get that distinction right in the fog of a chaotic situation? Arrest people and have them face trial. Advocating violent and potentially lethal crackdowns on people in situations like this is what brutal autocracies do.
> You may say the average person doesn't interpret that phrase that way
Given that he used that phrase in a Tweet, and not in a military order, it's reasonable to assume he was speaking to "the average person" and using that phrase accordingly. And given that he has actually said that he was using the phrase colloquially, you're interpreting his words contrary to what he's clearly said.
And given that he enlisted in 2005, and not in 1905, is it even reasonable to assume that he knew about this ancient meaning of the phrase? Does the military still use this phrase?
People actually killing protesters always, without fail, claim to be trying to stop "rioters and looters". This is not a phrase to be taken at face value, ever.
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul...
Militaries are also trained for peacekeeping missions. It’s not all about trigger happy gun toters.
If it’s an all out rebellion that’s different. I don’t see a ruby ridge or Waco incident coming, but maybe you do.