{"id":1945,"date":"2018-10-24T22:11:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T02:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1945"},"modified":"2018-10-24T22:11:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T02:11:51","slug":"uselessness-american-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html","title":{"rendered":"The Uselessness of the American Military?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wonder why they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2018\/10\/23\/2000-unarmed-guard-troops-on-border-as-trump-vows-to-send-more-to-stop-migrant-caravan\/\">\u201cmostly unarmed.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>The National Guard has about 2,100 troops working along\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/04\/04\/white-house-walks-back-trumps-plan-to-use-us-military-on-southern-border\/\">the U.S.-Mexico border<\/a>\u00a0as a caravan of thousands of migrants approach from Central America in a direct challenge to President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>On Monday, Trump lashed out at the caravan, calling it an \u201cassault on our country\u201d and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/10\/18\/trump-again-suggests-sending-troops-to-us-southern-border\/\">vowing to send as many additional troops<\/a>\u00a0as necessary to the border to stop them, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2018\/10\/22\/trump-halt-migrant-caravan-many-troops-necessary\/1731717002\/\">USA Today.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The now estimated 7,000 migrants have reached southern Mexico. They are traveling mostly by foot on a route that originated with about 200 initial migrants seeking to escape gang violence in Honduras.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In April, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis authorized that as many as 4,000 troops could be sent to the border pending approval of participating state governors. The memo allowed for the cost of the deployment to be reimbursed through federal funds, but also limited the National Guard\u2019s role, prohibiting guard forces from interacting with any of the migrants or taking on a law enforcement role.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If the United States military cannot protect America from this wave of invaders, then the military cannot protect America from <em>anyone.\u00a0 <\/em>If the military cannot secure America\u2019s borders, then the troops can\u2019t secure the borders of foreign countries either. To claim otherwise is akin to claiming that while a man can\u2019t prevent intruders from entering his home, he <em>can <\/em>be expected to protect his property by stopping intruders from intruding on <em>other people\u2019s <\/em>property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wonder why they are \u201cmostly unarmed.\u201d The National Guard has about 2,100 troops working along\u00a0the U.S.-Mexico border\u00a0as a caravan of thousands of migrants approach from Central America in a direct challenge to President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies. On Monday, Trump lashed out at the caravan, calling it an \u201cassault on our country\u201d and\u00a0vowing to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Uselessness of the American Military?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Uselessness of the American Military?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wonder why they are \u201cmostly unarmed.\u201d The National Guard has about 2,100 troops working along\u00a0the U.S.-Mexico border\u00a0as a caravan of thousands of migrants approach from Central America in a direct challenge to President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies. On Monday, Trump lashed out at the caravan, calling it an \u201cassault on our country\u201d and\u00a0vowing to&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-25T02:11:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Uselessness of the American Military?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Uselessness of the American Military?","og_description":"I wonder why they are \u201cmostly unarmed.\u201d The National Guard has about 2,100 troops working along\u00a0the U.S.-Mexico border\u00a0as a caravan of thousands of migrants approach from Central America in a direct challenge to President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies. On Monday, Trump lashed out at the caravan, calling it an \u201cassault on our country\u201d and\u00a0vowing to&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2018-10-25T02:11:51+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html","name":"The Uselessness of the American Military?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-10-25T02:11:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-25T02:11:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/10\/uselessness-american-military.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Uselessness of the American Military?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1946,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}