7/9/20
The top U.S. general in a public hearing on Thursday signaled his support for renaming Army bases named for Confederate generals, slamming the Confederacy as “treason” in a passionate tirade that stood in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s embrace of symbols of the failed secessionist movement. “Those generals fought for the institution of slavery. We have to take a hard look at the symbology,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the House Armed Services Committee. “The Confederacy, the American Civil War, was fought and it was an act of rebellion. It was an act of treason against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the U.S. Constitution. Those officers turned their back on their oath.” Milley said he had recommended a commission to look at the issue. “The way we should do it matters as much as that we should do it,” he said, acknowledging that there are some in the military who see Confederate symbols as “heritage,” while others recognize them as “hate.” The ten Army bases named for Confederate generals and one colonel, have come under scrutiny amid the nationwide protests in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Army publicly signaled that it was open to renaming the bases, but was quickly smacked down by Trump, who tweeted that his administration will “never” rename the bases — now a toxic flash-point in the culture wars.
Milley’s speech was remarkable both in its severe language against the Confederacy and in the division it demonstrated with the president, who is known to like the tough-talking general but has laced into protesters pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments and implicitly supported the display of the Confederate flag at NASCAR races. Milley and other military officials have sought to cast diversity initiatives, like the potential renaming of the bases, as a necessary step to maintaining an inclusive and “cohesive” fighting force. Still, he acknowledged Thursday that the decision to name the bases for Confederate leaders in the first place was “political” and that the decision to change those names would be equally so. The former Army secretary recalled a staff sergeant who approached him when he was a young officer at Fort Bragg, named for the Confederate general Braxton Bragg. “He said he went to work every day on a base named that represented a guy that enslaved his grandparents,” Milley said. “Racism, bias, and prejudice have no place in our military, not only because they are immoral and unjust, but also because they degrade the morale, cohesion, and readiness of our force,” he said.
