Hi, I'm Bill Crystal, editor at large of the bulwark.

And I am Mark Hurtling, a bulwark contributor and a retired lieutenant general. And this is your fourth edition of Command Post, part of the Bullwork Fakes. This is where we go beyond the headlines and take a look at the military implications of some of the things that are going on in our country right now. And really, the first episodes have been terrific, I think, Mark. So we can see if we can keep up to that level today. I hope I don't, I don't, to drag it down too much. It's Wednesday afternoon, January 28th, just so people know, in case there's stuff that happens in the next 12 hours. You'll know when we're speaking. And I thought we'd talk about what's happening in Minneapolis, actually, from the point

of view of someone who has had many positions in the U.S. military, but accommodating in a three-star

general who really has thought deeply about the questions of soldiers and keeping order

and its relationship or comparison to some of the other things that are done to keep order in different societies and I guess including ours now.

But we'll get to a little bit on Greenland and on Venezuela later, which you've written about, both of which you've written about excellently.

But I think this conversation was partly prompted by the fact that a friend of mine,

I think I texted you this a couple of days ago, texted me and said, Bill, why is General Hurtling

so, he's a big fan of yours, why is he so reluctant about the use of the military in the situation?

Surely they'd be better disciplined, better trained than

these ICE and Border Patrol guys. This is after the killing on Saturday of Mr. Freddie.

Wouldn't it be better maybe, kind of just send some of the military in an emergency way?

And I said, I think there are a good argument. I'm sort of sympathetic to instinctively one sees that case,

but I think there are good arguments against it, but I'll let Mark Hurtling make those

arguments if you wish to. Yeah, sure. Well, there's two parts of that, Bill, and we'll talk about

both of them. The first is sending in the National Guard. The National Guard actually has a

mission set called support for civilian authorities.

When they do that, they can go into an area guard buildings, conduct administrative or logistics functions, but they can't arrest and they can't harm or approach fellow citizens in a policing type way.

Even if you're a military,

policeman or woman within the military,

you can't do that.

It's against the law.

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