2. Here's the crucial context @DouthatNYT misses: the idea of sending in the military to quell the uprising didn't just scare the liberal & post-liberal reporters at the New York Times, it also freaked out the non-liberals in the Pentagon.
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3. The crucial context is that the president is Trump (a race-baiting know-nothing) rather than, say, Eisenhower or George H.W. Bush or Obama. That's why the Pentagon resisted having troops sent in and that's why many civilians reacted with revulsion.
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4. You could, if you wanted to, make an argument that in the abstract "sending in the troops" might in some circumstances make sense. But guess what? Life is not a debating club. Our choices take place in a specific moment: sending in the troops would mean Trump with in charge.
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5. It's not an accident the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff got enormous pushback for participating in Trump's St. John's photo op: the next day he issued a statement reaffirming military's commitment to constitution & later apologized for photo op. https://twitter.com/AYATOMM_COM/status/1271522360600887296/photo/1pic.twitter.com/sJM4Jf686C
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6.
@DouthatNYT says Cotton distinguishes between looters & protestors. But, again, this isn't an abstract debate. Cotton isn't the commander-in-chief, Trump is. And Trump, as he did today, uses looters and protesters interchangeably. He'd be in charge if troops sent in.pic.twitter.com/08X1v5vBB8
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7. The problem with James Bennet's op-ed page (a problem that Douthat's current column replicates) is that it treated ideas as entertainments: playful exercises for the mind. Thought experiments. Now I think ideas can be playful but not always, not during a mass uprising!
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8. Also,
@DouthatNYT needs to address the fact that Cotton called for rules of engagement to be "no quarters" given -- i.e. no prisoners, only killing. That's a war crime.https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/1267459561675468800 …Show this thread -
9. The 82nd Airborne was almost deployed. "There was some very deep philosophical discussions about the Constitution." Like I said, life is not a debating club.https://connectingvets.radio.com/articles/new-details-about-the-82nd-military-deployment-to-dc …
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One of the problems of contemporary discourse is how much slack right wing pundits are given before being called out for writing in bad faith.
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Their entire careers, in other words.
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