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Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Ret. Gen. Martin Dempsey. Photo: Brent N. Clarke/Getty Images
Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Ret. Gen. Martin Dempsey condemned President Trump's threat to deploy military personnel to hubs of civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, NPR reports.
What he's saying: Dempsey stated, "The idea that the military would be called in to dominate and to suppress what, for the most part, were peaceful protests — admittedly, where some had opportunistically turned them violent — and that the military would somehow come in and calm that situation was very dangerous to me."
- He added that military force should be reserved for "conflict in external wars."
The big picture: Dempsey isn't the only military brass to bash Trump's announcement to mobilize the U.S. military. The president's former Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis and current Defense Secretary Mark Esper have also opposed the suggestion.