Military brass struggles to explain role as protest crackdown controversy deepens
The top commander of the US armed forces, General Mark Milley, struggled to explain the role of the military as demands for a crackdown grew from the White House. The Pentagon and the National Guard are currently engaged in something called a “hot wash.” That’s an after-action investigation of their conduct during the protests in Washington a week and a half ago. The early indications, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post, are that the Pentagon leadership and the National Guard acted improperly in confronting peaceful demonstrations. Jeremy Kuzmarov, a professor of American history whose latest book is “The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce,” joins the show.