I'm exhausted, like us all. But before I go to bed, a couple of civ-mil notes about what's going on right now.

1. The DOD initially denied @MayorBowser's request for nat'l guard troops. That is a deep indication of politicization and rot within DOD leadership. 1/

2. Confederate battle flags were being flown by Trump supporters in an armed assault against the US Capitol building, held in the name of veterans. We cannot neglect the role that racism and white supremacy played in the events of today and still exist in the vet community. 2/

3. While during anti-police protests the national guard can help de-escalate situations, it's not clear that the national guard will be particularly better suited to deal with the current crop of protestors. 3/

Guardsmen and women are trained regularly in disaster relief and combat arms, because those are their main jobs. It's already breaking training for many. So anti-riot tactics are not at the forefront of training. 4/

4. All reporting suggests that the DOD was largely unprepared for the protests and uninterested in playing a role. They overreacted to the events in Lafayette Square, and took the wrong lessons. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/national-guard-trump-protests-washington/2021/01/06/d9b6b968-5065-11eb-b2e8-3339e73d9da2_story.html

Rather than be prepared to respond to violence in a measured and planned way, the Pentagon's instinct was to say, "not my problem, we don't want to be involved." Disaster ensued. 6/

Finally, 5. Pence has shown today that he is in charge of the exec branch. While he is not formally in the chain of command, he was the one who consulted with DOD over the nat'l guard deployment. He consulted w/ other political leaders, not Trump. 7/

As @naunihalpublic public points out, what we saw today was not a coup. But @VP effectively assumed the responsibilities of the presidency today, and if this isn't rectified it represents a real breach in US authorities. 8/

That @DeptofDefense conferred with Pence--even informally--instead of POTUS, suggests a major breach in the civil-military relationship and distrust of the president. 9/

This may be irrelevant, given that there are just 2 wks left in Trump's term. But the willingness of @DeptofDefense to go around the chain of command in a national emergency is deeply troubling, and not a good omen for civilian control. 10/10.