National Guardsmen Speak Out Against Trump Administration
2 National Guardsmen Speak Out Against Trump Admin, Say They Would Refuse Deployment To Chicago
Since the start of President Donald Trump’s agenda to weaponize the National Guard against Democrat-run cities, and particularly those cities with large Black populations, the more sensible side of the American populace — those who are actually concerned with government overreach, unlike those who were just pretending to during the Obama years — have been waiting for Guard members themselves to speak up and speak out against their power-abusing commander in chief, and refuse to comply with orders that would pit them against their own citizens.
Well, at least two members of the Illinois National Guard are doing just that.
According to CBS News, the two soldiers, Staff Sgt. Demi Palecek and Capt. Dylan Blaha said they would refuse to obey federal orders to deploy in Chicago as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has resulted in seemingly unending clashes and tension between immigration cops and Chicago residents who couldn’t possibly make it clearer that they do not want ICE, Border Patrol, or any other federal agencies running wild in their communities.
“It’s disheartening to be forced to go against your community members and your neighbors,” Palecek, a Latina guardswoman who is running for a seat in the state legislature to represent Illinois’s 13th District, told CBS. “It feels illegal. This is not what we signed up to do.”
Blaha, who is also running for Congress in the same district, said there is increasing discomfort among guard members who are also concerned that the president is using them in ways they also didn’t sign up for.
“I signed up to defend the American people and protect the Constitution,” Blaha said. “When we have somebody in power who’s actively dismantling our rights — free speech, due process, freedom of the press — it’s really hard to be a soldier right now.”
But, again, it’s not enough to simply say what Trump is doing is wrong. The American people — at least the ones who aren’t MAGA bootlickers who only wish they had popcorn handy while watching the military be turned against those pesky minorities — need to hear Guardsmen and other military personnel say they would refuse any order that would turn them against their own people.
From CBS:
Asked if she would refuse a direct order to deploy to Chicago, Palecek didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely. I would definitely say no,” she said. “I’m not going to go against my community members, my family and my culture. I believe this is the time to be on the right side of history.”
“Look at 1930s, 1940s Germany,” Blaha said. “There is a point where if you didn’t stand up to the Gestapo, are you just actively one of them now?”
Meanwhile, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Win Without War, a progressive anti-war group, has paid for 11 Chicago-area billboards that directly challenge Guard members to do the right thing instead of the Trump thing.
“Army National Guard. You joined to serve your community,” the billboards, which began appearing in Chicago Oct. 14, read. “So what are you doing in Chicago?”
The billboards also include a website address, notwhatyousignedupfor.org, which links service members to resources such as a site that leads to the GI Rights Hotline, which gives service members counseling “on their legal rights and discharge options, including conscientious objector status.” The Sun-Times noted that Win Without War “has also placed billboards outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina and its message on mobile billboards in Washington, D.C.”
“Essentially for us, when we saw the Trump administration start deploying National Guard and U.S. service members against their own citizens, it was really a moment where we wanted the troops to know that someone has their back,” Win Without War’s executive director, Sara Haghdoosti, said. “Because the Trump administration clearly doesn’t, and obviously, troops didn’t sign up to fight Trump’s war in American cities. As we saw things escalating in Chicago, we really wanted to make sure that message was loud and clear here, too.”
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge April Perry temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Chicago. Last week, Judge Perry delayed the deployment indefinitely, or at least until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the matter, which the Trump administration requested last Friday, likely because it knows it has a friend in the Republican-dominated high court.
So, basically, it’s going to come down to the people of Chicago and the Guard members’ willingness to resist the most authoritarian administration in our lifetimes.
SEE ALSO:
Residents In Historically Crime-Ridden Chicago Neighborhood Oppose Trump’s National Guard Threats
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