President Trump announced on Wednesday that he “will not even consider” calls to rename American military bases named after Confederate generals. The calls to rename the bases are another part of the ongoing cultural temper tantrum allegedly the result of the death of Minneapolis criminal George Floyd.
On Monday, Defense Secretary Mike Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy signaled that they were “open to a bipartisan discussion” about renaming southern military bases that were named for Confederate leaders such as Robert E. Lee, George Pickett, and Braxton Bragg.
The president made his feelings known on Twitter:
It has been suggested that we should rename as many as ten of our legendary military bases, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Benning in Georgia, etc. These monumental and very powerful bases have become part of a great American heritage.
Trump continued: “The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these hallowed grounds, and won two world wars. Therefore, my administration will not even consider the renaming of these magnificent and fabled military installations.”
“Our history as the greatest nation in the world will not be tampered with. Respect our military,” Trump concluded.
To underscore the president’s feelings on the subject, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany read Trump’s tweets aloud to reporters in the White House briefing room. McEnany stressed that the president is “fervently” opposed to changing the base names, saying that the idea amounted to “complete disrespect” of the soldiers who have trained there.
The president’s position seems to put him at odds with some members of the military, including Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, Army Chief of Staff General James McConville, and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, who wrote a joint statement addressing the widespread anti-police protests. While not specifically addressing the renaming of the bases, the three wrote: “Over the past week, the country has suffered an explosion of frustration over the racial divisions that still plague us as Americans. And because your Army is a reflection of American society, those divisions live in the Army as well,” the officials wrote.
“We feel the frustration and anger,” the statement read. “We need to work harder to earn the trust of mothers and fathers who hesitate to hand their sons and daughters into our care.”
The fresh controversy over the renaming of the military bases was sparked in part by an op-ed written by disgraced former CIA Director David Petraeus, who in 2015 plead guilty to the charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information, which he reportedly shared with his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell.
“These bases are, after all, federal installations, home to soldiers who swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Petraeus wrote. “The irony of training at bases named for those who took up arms against the United States, and for the right to enslave others, is inescapable to anyone paying attention. Now, belatedly, is the moment for us to pay such attention.”
“We do not live in a country to which Braxton Bragg, Henry L. Benning or Robert E. Lee can serve as an inspiration,” Petraeus concluded.
Petraeus might be right about that. But we also don’t live in a country where violent criminals such as George Floyd and Michael Brown should serve as a martyred saints. Yet, that is happening and being encouraged by leftists and the media.
The call to rename these military bases tracks closely with the vandalism of Confederate monuments throughout the South and the actions of Virginia governor Ralph Northam, who is acting to remove confederate statues in the state, including an iconic 130-year-old statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond.
Renaming these bases may or may not be a discussion worth having at some point, but doing it now in the midst of a collective nationwide left-wing tantrum over so-called systemic racism would be a mistake. As any parent knows, when you simply give in to a child’s tantrum, it merely reinforces the bad behavior that brought it on.
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
