Voices: A red line
- Guest contributor
- Oct 2
- 3 min read
By Bridget Smith
President Trump’s speech to the generals and admirals and senior enlisted of our military at Quantico crossed a red line for me. As I suspect it did for the men and women assembled in the room. Trump, in a chaotic stream of consciousness style consisting of ignorance and idiocy, declared that we have an “enemy within” in our country.
He said, “Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won’t get out of control.”
He was referring to our fellow American citizens, specifically anyone who disagrees with him and lives in an urban center, an American city. He thinks it might be a good idea to “use some of those cities as training grounds for our military”, which is a vindictive betrayal of the American people. It is unconnected from the reality of what the military actually is and does. Talk about treason and treachery. (By the way, speaking of treason, in case you didn’t notice during this very public speech, he told the world that he sent a nuclear submarine or two to the coast of Russia because “we were a little bit threatened by Russia recently.” No military secret is safe with him. Oh, and in case you are wondering about what the submarine(s) may or may not do, he was quick to reassure us that “it’s just lurking, but I’m sure we’re not going to have to use it.”)
In this incoherent speech that mangled the English language and exposed his declining cognitive abilities, he singled out certain cities as the targets for the deployment of the United States military. “But it seems that the ones that are run by the radical-left Democrats — what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles — they’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one.”
He made sure that the generals and admirals and senior enlisted men and women knew that he was counting on them to carry out this unAmerican, illegal, unconstitutional, and just plain despicable action. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within.”
The purpose of our military is to protect and to defend the people of the United States, not to deploy lethal force toward them because they criticize the president. It is well known that Trump tries to exact retribution from those who do not support him. It is not a healthy trait. In fact, as parents, we teach our children that revenge, i.e. punishing others for perceived real or unreal harm, is wrong. This is an example of him seeking vengeance because people in the cities mentioned above did not vote for him.
One of my purposes in writing this is to remind our local leaders that these are serious matters that affect all of us, and that we expect them to stand firm against this movement toward an authoritarian government. I am asking our elected officials in Juneau — the mayor, the Juneau Assembly members, our state senator, our state representatives — to use their right to free speech and to condemn these words and actions from the president. Stand up for us and with us, for democracy, not for an authoritarian regime willing to deploy its military against American citizens. What else will stop him from coming for us and our children and grandchildren?
• Bridget Smith is a Juneau resident.
