Originally Posted by
Thekri
Not sure where you got the idea they were more or less restricted then they were during last year. The actual actions of the NG in both cases were very simular. The major differences are 1) You didn't see the use of force memo last time, and 2) Last time they had a LOT of support by other federal agencies, where they had almost none this time.
The first is not a big deal, the second absolutely is. As I mentioned in my earlier post on the topic, I am EXTREMELY concerned by the actions of numerous federal agencies during the Washington protests last year. Many of these agencies cannot even be identified, such as who was operating surveillance aircraft over the crowd, or who was providing the "Goon Squads" we saw in both DC and Portland. Other agencies we can identify, such as the National Park service, were operating WAY outside the scope of their authority, and tear gassing crowds. But I can't find any evidence that the National Guard itself was particularly misused in those cases (If you remember the iconic picture of them on the Washington Monument, they had no guns, no riot shields, and weren't advancing on protestors).
As far as the memo itself, you seem to completely misunderstand what it is. It is a very standard use of force format, I dealt with similar documents hundreds of times. When it says "You can't do this thing without asking permission" that is exactly what it means. It doesn't mean you can't do it, it just means you have to ask the person assigned to approve such things. In Afghanistan we had mountains of these memos, restricting all sorts of things. "Don't use Aerial munitions within X distance of a structure", "Don't obstruct civilian traffic along roads", "Don't enter agricultural areas", but none of those were hard rules, each of them had a person you had to ask before you did something like that. They don't want Soldiers doing donuts in some poor farmers fields, but if one of my Platoons needed to go after a mortar emplacement or something, I was the one authorized to approve that. For something more serious, like Aerial Munitions near a residential structure, if we absolutely needed to do it, I had to ask my boss first (Or provide a really good reason after the fact!)
That is all this memo is. "Don't do shit that is going to rile up the media unless you ask me first". Of course, Soldiers are ALWAYS allowed to do what they need to defend themselves, and since we saw the NG doing several of the things on that list, clearly they did ask for, and receive, permission to do it. They weren't actually used as traffic control, we saw them in a shield wall moving rioters away from the capital.