Juan Cole: "Informed Comment"
University of Michigan comedian Juan Cole has put out yet another in his endless stream of silly columns in his curiously-named blog, Informed Comment. In this laffer, Cole takes President Trump to task for sending federal troops to US cities to deal with lawlessness that state and local authorities refuse to confront and stop.
https://www.juancole.com/2020/07/security-baghdad-portland.html
How curious that Cole spends the overwhelming majority of his post in discussing President George W Bush's "surge" in Iraq, which he (Cole) argues was unsuccessful. He compares it to what Trump is doing with the US cities.
Rather than debate Cole on Bush and Iraq, I would rather focus on what is supposed to be the thesis of his column- Trump's actions. My reasoning is that there is a vast difference between wars/military actions and civil riots and crimes/police actions.
What is occurring in places like Seattle, Portland, and other cities is not a military issue-it is a law enforcement issue. Whether the police are dressed in police uniforms, military uniforms, or none is immaterial. When I was a military policeman, I wore a uniform. When I was a Customs agent and later a DEA agent, we had no uniforms. That did not stop us from arresting people in cities. To even bring up the uniform issue is silly.
But it is the propriety and legality of Trump's action that Cole is also attacking in his typically hysterical manner. First of all, we know that the federal courthouse in Portland has been attacked by rioters, and federal protective services have every right to defend those structures. To say that federal agents have no right to arrest people damaging federal property is to show a giant ignorance of the law. (Cole is a history professor.) There is no violation of the 10th Amendment.
But more importantly, who would deny that there are people all over the country coordinating with each other across state lines, and crossing states lines to commit acts of violence in our cities? Cole might, but I will point the finger of blame squarely at Antifa and Black Lives Matter. That brings the FBI and other federal agencies into the picture because it involves violation of our federal conspiracy statutes, which can be found in Title 18 of the US Code. (Federal drug conspiracy laws are covered under Title 21.) Conspiracy investigations generally take months or even years to put a case together, but I am comfortable in saying that the Justice Department under William Barr is in the process of doing that right now. Thus, I would predict that eventually, federal agents-in civilian clothes, no less, if not SWAT clothes- will be knocking on doors and making arrests.
That is, as long as Trump remains in office. If Biden wins and we get a new AG and DOJ, all bets are off. The investigations will be shut down.
The problem here is that in virtually every major city that has been hit with violence, the city government (mayors-city councils) are in the hands of the Democrats as they have been for decades. They appoint and tell the chiefs of police what to do and what not to do as we have seen in the past several weeks. Entire cities have been terrorized by anarchists, black and white, as police stand down, evacuate precincts, and watch the destruction. Even Democrat governors turn their heads.
"There isn’t an antifa organization. One problem with anarchists is that they aren’t very organized."
No, Antifa isn't an organization in the sense that they have a president or CEO with an organizational structure. Antifa thugs don't have membership cards. But, like any criminal organization, they work with themselves and others to commit crimes. Antifa is a movement, and anyone ready to throw a brick is welcome. They don't believe in peaceful protest. They prefer to riot and assault people.
And I finish with this Cole quote:
"But instead of combating a wily Islamic State of Iraq that was trying to set people against one another, the Feds have now become ISIL themselves."
Hey, Professor Cole: Please send me the link where the feds are beheading people and raping the women. That last statement alone is evidence of what kind of "scholar" this guy is.
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