In one of the most hilarious moments of 2021 so far, everyone that has paid any attention to the media has seen the photos of the National Guard sleeping in the parking garage near the Capitol. The reason it is so hilarious is because of the shock everyone has about the situation.
Ironically, a post on The Hawk Bawk that spoke of some miscommunication in the military was posted shortly before this story broke!
Trump National Guard Protection vs. Biden National Guard Protection
Originally 20,000, the Department of Defense increased the National Guard presence for President Biden’s inauguration to 25,000. This included National Guard members from all 50 states, D.C., and 3 U.S. territories. Also providing protection for the inauguration were the Capitol Police, the FBI, and the leading organization, the Secret Service.
These numbers have made the headlines all over the media, yet there hasn’t been much talk about how many National Guard members were at President Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, 2017. That number was a minute 5,000 compared to Biden’s 25,000. There were also riots that led to 217 arrests and they were quelled by 6:30 P.M.
There will also be 5,000 soldiers staying until mid-March for “…assistance such as security, communications, medical evacuation, logistics, and safety support to state, district and federal agencies.”
Does this tell you there might be much more drastic measures to be made by Biden? The Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter) don’t shy away from letting everyone know what they want to do. Should executive orders be so easily penned to allow a president to command such authority?
It seems people love for the president to have that power as long as it is their president.
*Side note – it was harder to find information about the number of Guardsmen at the Trump inauguration. On Google, Bing, and Duckduckgo even, dated searches for 2017 still turned up articles about the 2021 inauguration.
Why Even Have the Inauguration If Times Are So Dangerous?
Well, that’s a simple question to answer really – the government needs to show its dominance. The government would look weak if citizens showed up and were able to disrupt the inauguration.
However, a government that needs such drastic means of protection also looks weak. Since very few of the people in attendance would actually protect themselves if things went south, you probably could even say the government is weak.
Shouldn’t this be telling of the situation our country is in? Why are we continuing to force this country to stay together when it clearly does not want to be together?
The only call for unity any government wants is to unite under its banner. It could care less what you want. It’s what the government needs – for everyone to be united under the government.
Also, COVID-19 sure seems to be a big deal when the Chicken Hawks aren’t getting what they want, but this mass travel from all 50 states and 3 territories to one spot to spread that virus doesn’t seem to matter when the government is pounding its military might. It seems as though no one even thought a video stream was the answer. Is it because a video stream would be cheaper and way easier?
Now with the National Guard and their Garage Beds
One of the most surprising reactions from all the media on the Guardsmen sleeping in the garage is the outcry about it. It clearly shows the general populace has no idea what its like being in the military. Those pictures looked pretty normal military treatment to me.
However, with 25,000 Guardsmen protecting the Capitol, how else do you expect them to rest? According to Cvent, there are about 30,000 hotel rooms in D.C. However, in these times, how many of those rooms are even open? Were all of those rooms empty when the National Guard started to arrive? How would transportation work between the hotels and the inauguration?
From the articles that were perused for this post, Guardsmen from New Hampshire and Texas were flown to D.C., so they did not have their own vehicles to get around D.C. The Texas Guardsmen were there for at least a week.
As stated earlier, the miscommunication of how everything went down is kind of shocking. It’s no surprise with so many organizations involved. It also probably doesn’t matter that much since it was G.I. Joe that suffered from it, despite all the “omg they didn’t deserve that and it’ll never happen again” rhetoric from many Congresspeople.
Side note: If you’re a seasoned soldier, you’d know how to properly layout your equipment to give you a decent night’s sleep! However, since the National Guard is only part time, perhaps only the deployed members might be able to be considered “seasoned.”
Not All National Guard Soldiers Were In Garages
Surprisingly, this story popped up. National Guardsmen from Maine were staying in hotels or “other comfortable accommodations.”
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsME National Guard members are still in DC. The public affairs officer says “we do not currently have a firm return time, those plans are being developed, most likely next week sometime.” He has NOT received any reports of ME soldiers resting in a parking garage. @newscentermaine
— Roslyn Flaherty (@roslyn_flaherty) January 22, 2021
However, the news for the Maine National Guard gets worse.
As of the time that story was posted (after the inauguration), the Maine Guardsmen had no date to return home. Having never seen the orders that activated the 25,000+ Guardsmen to provide security in D.C., one can guess there was language in it that left it open ended. However, this shouldn’t be an excuse to not have any plans in place to get the troops home.
Get the troops home? That’s something the government doesn’t like to hear!
From the Maine National Guard article:
“The Maine National Guard public affairs officer told NEWS CENTER Maine Friday that there currently isn’t a firm return date, and the plans are still being developed; ‘most likely next week sometime,’ they said.“
“Most likely next week sometime” tells the non-Chicken Hawks “We don’t know what we are doing.” This article was posted 2 days after the inauguration. Two days later and the Maine National Guard still had no idea what they are doing, and could be just sitting down there for a week?
From my understanding, the National Guard is mostly part time. Unless all of the Guardsmen that went to D.C. were all AGR (Active Guard Reserve – essentially full time Guardsmen), shouldn’t there be some vested interest in returning these troops back to their homes? Shouldn’t many of them have jobs they need to get back to?
It would make hiring any member of the Guard or Reserve a difficult choice. If the soldier was called up to fight in a justified (defensive) war, that probably would be a legit reason to allow your employee to leave. But having your employee called up to travel 3,000 miles when there are many thousands of soldiers much closer that could do the job just seems like a giant waste of time and money.
Annoying Chicken Hawk Family!
One of the most annoying things Chicken Hawks do is talk about how they have family in the military. It’s suppose to somehow legitimize the Chicken Hawk’s thoughts, feelings, or expertise on anything military related.
The Chicken Hawk In Charge (CHIC), President Biden, is extremely annoying in this sense. He constantly reminds us his son was in the National Guard and speaks as though it gives him some authority about the National Guard. From the New York Times on a conversation between Biden and General Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau:
“The two men also talked about Mr. Biden’s personal connection to the Guard; Mr. Biden’s son, Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, served as a Major in the Delaware Army National Guard.“
Why are they talking about that? The only reason that would be brought up during a conversation about National Guard troops sleeping in ill-equipped quarters would be because Biden wants to sound important.
If General Hokanson didn’t ask, “What does that have to do with our current situation?” he’s a pansy soldier.
It’s a trait of the Chicken Hawk – to use family and friends as clout on militaristic expertise.
From now on, any warmongering president (which will basically be most of them) will be referred to as the CHIC.
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