Detention Camps on Military Bases 'Smacks of Totalitarianism,' Troops Say

[babylonsister]

Detention Camps on Military Bases ‘Smacks of Totalitarianism,’ Troops Say
The Pentagon ‘is participating in a scheme that appropriates the concept of military honor to perpetrate a human rights abuse,’ one decorated veteran tells The Daily Beast.
James LaPorta
Spencer Ackerman
06.25.18 7:00 PM ET


Active-duty and retired U.S. military officers and enlisted personnel are expressing a sense of moral emergency over the Defense Department setting up detention camps for undocumented immigrants on military bases.

“It smacks of totalitarianism,” said Steve Kleinman, a retired Air Force colonel and military intelligence officer.

Raf Noboa, an Iraq War veteran and former Army sergeant, said he was astounded by the “enormous moral offense” the camps represent and which the military will be ordered to support.

“America’s military once liberated people from concentration camps,” Noboa told The Daily Beast. “It beggars the mind and our morality that it might be used to secure them.”

“I knew something bad was going to happen. I have always taken [President Trump]’s rhetoric at face value and right now, I’m not banking on the president having good will towards people of my nationality,” said an active-duty military officer of Mexican descent currently stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, one of the sites under consideration for the detention camps.


more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/detention-camps-on-military-bases-smacks-of-totalitarianism-troops-say?ref=home

[blueinredohio]

1. Why don't they have the balls to speak up and tell Trump

that they don't agree with this policy?

[Hortensis]

2. Here's a Marines Times article about Democratic efforts

to keep this from happening. It's fairly objectively written, but it's clear any lean is not toward military involvement in concentration camps.

And then there's the quote from a Republican congressman. I forgot about hurricanes, but otherwise being inhumane is the point. They're speaking of eventually two camps that could hold 47,000 people each, plus the others.

Dems fight to wall off military from Trump’s immigration plans

President Donald Trump’s controversial “zero-tolerance” immigration policy has a weak spot: It is using the Defense Department as a crutch to cover shortfalls in prosecutors, in detention facilities and in enforcement personnel.

Now House Democrats hope to exploit that vulnerability with a slew of proposed amendments—for the $675 billion defense appropriation bill expected to receive floor consideration this week—aimed at rebuffing Trump’s plans.

Of the 130-plus amendments proposed, a handful hope to block cooperation between the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Health and Human Services. The Rules Committee is set to begin screening amendments on Monday night. ...

“Housing anyone in tents on the Gulf Coast during the heat of summer and the heart of hurricane season would be inhumane and a major mistake. I am committed to working with our local officials to fight back against this misguided idea,” said Alabama Rep. Bradley Byrne, the seapower sub-panel’s vice-chair, told AL.com.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/federal-oversight/congress/2018/06/25/dems-fight-to-wall-off-military-from-trumps-immigration-plans/

[jayschool2013]

6. Thanks for sharing

Thanks for sharing the link.

I'm astounded by the lede, however. The zero-tolerance policy has "a weak spot: It is using the Defense Department as a crutch to cover shortfalls in prosecutors, in detention facilities and in enforcement personnel."

Uh, and jailing babies?

[Doodley]

3. Everything Trump does is through a lens of fascism. Everything.

[C_U_L8R]

4. They are not obligated to commit crimes

And following orders is no excuse. Everyone is responsible
for what you do and don't do. And one day there will be a reckoning.
RESIST.

[Scarsdale]

5. The next step will

be to increase the Pentagon budget - AGAIN. Soon all taxes will go to the military budgets, no road repairs, no bridge repairs, no Social Security, no Medicare. Just as the gop wants this country to be.