In Case It Wasn’t Obvious, No One Needs the Marines in Los Angeles

This seems to me to be somewhat of an escalation. From NBC10 in Los Angeles:

About 700 Marines have been mobilized to support National Guard members assigned to protect federal personnel and property in Los Angeles, according to two defense officials. Details about the Marines’ role in Los Angeles, where protests over immigration enforcement operations turned violent over the weekend, were not immediately available. The service members assigned to L.A. will be out of Twentynine Palms, California. In a rare move on Saturday, Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles without a request from state or local officials.

The Marines have one purpose—and God bless them all for it. But it is not to “support” the National Guard that was called in to “protect” ICE. It is to get shipped off to whatever hellspot in which they are needed and to make effective war there. Nobody in Los Angeles is their enemy. Nobody in Los Angeles is a threat to the nation. There is no invasion. There is an occupation now, but the occupiers are all Americans, and they wear government-issued uniforms and riot gear. This rather complicates the mission. Also, putting a dipso warmonger in charge at the DOD seems, in retrospect, suboptimal. Leave the Marines alone, Pete. They’re better people than you ever were.