Friday, 10 July 2020_A top US general has censured American Confederate leaders as traitors and withdrawn his support for naming military bases and statues after those who fought in the Civil War era, a viewpoint that puts him on a collision course with US President Donald Trump.
Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the topic of military bases and statues named after Confederate leaders and said on Thursday that the US military needs "to take a hard look at the symbology" of the 1861-65 Civil War.
"The American Civil War… was an act of treason at the time against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the US Constitution — and those officers turned their backs on their oath. Now, some have a different view of that. Some think it's heritage. Others think it's hate,” Milley said.
"The way we should do it matters as much as that we should do it. So we need to have, I've recommended, a commission of folks to take a hard look at the bases, the statues, the names, all of this stuff, to see if we can have a rational, mature discussion," he added.
Milley estimated that minorities account for 43 percent of the US military and at least 20 percent of soldiers in the army are African Americans.
"We've also got to take a hard look at the symbology, the symbols, things like the Confederate flags and statues and bases," Milley underlined.
This comes as Trump has made clear that he intends to block any plans to rename the bases and has made exploiting racial and cultural divisions a key tenet of his re-election strategy.
Trump said in a tweet last month that, "These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage... Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations."
The US president also threatened to veto a military spending bill if it contains an amendment that demands the removal of the names of Confederate leaders from military assets.
The US army has been pressured in recent weeks to rename 10 military bases named after Confederate leaders in the wake of the brutal murder of unarmed African American George Floyd in Minnesota.
Your Comment