Defense chief adds voice to concerns on troops use

The issue of using the United States military to quell urban protests escalated on Wednesday when Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he opposed the move and his predecessor criticized a military response to the crisis.

"The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now," Esper said at a briefing."I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."

But later in the day, the Pentagon reversed course on a move to send active-duty troops to home bases from the Washington DC region. The military has pre-positioned 1,600 active-duty forces on the outskirts of the capital, to deploy if needed, Reuters reported.

A US official said that the army on Wednesday had been told of a decision to send some of the troops back to their home bases, but Esper reversed course following a meeting at the White House and discussions at the Pentagon, according to the report.

Also on Wednesday, President Donald Trump's first defense secretary, James Mattis, issued a rare statement in which he said the president was the first in his lifetime "who does not try to unite the American people－does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us."

Esper's words marked a break with Trump, who raised the possibility of invoking the rarely used 1807 insurrection law to deploy the military on US soil for law enforcement purposes, according to US media reports.

In a Rose Garden speech on Monday, Trump threatened to "deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem" if governors do not "dominate" the demonstrators and stop the rioting and looting.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota lent his support to Esper.

"I think that these tasks ought to be relegated as much as possible to the state and local authorities, the law enforcement and police," the Republican said on Wednesday, adding that "the goal always is to de-escalate, not escalate".

Still, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the president was still willing to deploy federal troops despite Esper's comments.

A tool available

"The Insurrection Act is a tool available. The president has the sole authority. And if needed, he will use it," she said.

Asked if the president still had confidence in his Pentagon chief, who took office 11 months ago, McEnany said:"As of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper, and should the president lose faith, we will all learn about that in the future."

Esper has come under fire for having walked with Trump and others, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, for a photo in front of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington on Monday evening.

Police forcefully dispersed mostly peaceful crowds of protesters to clear a path for the officials.

"I was not aware a photo op was happening," Esper said. He also said he regretted using the term "battlespace" this week to describe areas gripped by protests.

In the statement posted on The Atlantic magazine website, Mattis also criticized the use of the word "battlespace" by Esper.

Cal Jillson, a political scientist and historian at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, said that both Esper and Milley were "embarrassed" by the criticism they received from peers within the national security and defense establishment.

Jillson also said: "Most of the recent demonstrations have been legitimate expressions of dismay over historic and current police violence against black Americans."