Top US general slams Confederate leaders as traitors, backs renaming bases

A top US general has censured American Confederate leaders as traitors and withdrawn his support for naming military bases and statues after those who fought in the Civil War era, a viewpoint that puts him on a collision course with US President Donald Trump.

Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the topic of military bases and statues named after Confederate leaders and said on Thursday that the US military needs "to take a hard look at the symbology" of the 1861-65 Civil War.

"The American Civil War… was an act of treason at the time against the Union, against the Stars and Stripes, against the US Constitution — and those officers turned their backs on their oath. Now, some have a different view of that. Some think it's heritage. Others think it's hate,” Milley said.

"The way we should do it matters as much as that we should do it. So we need to have, I've recommended, a commission of folks to take a hard look at the bases, the statues, the names, all of this stuff, to see if we can have a rational, mature discussion," he added.

Milley estimated that minorities account for 43 percent of the US military and at least 20 percent of soldiers in the army are African Americans.

"We've also got to take a hard look at the symbology, the symbols, things like the Confederate flags and statues and bases," Milley underlined.

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This comes as Trump has made clear that he intends to block any plans to rename the bases and has made exploiting racial and cultural divisions a key tenet of his re-election strategy.

Trump said in a tweet last month that, "These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage... Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations."

The US president also threatened to veto a military spending bill if it contains an amendment that demands the removal of the names of Confederate leaders from military assets.

The US army has been pressured in recent weeks to rename 10 military bases named after Confederate leaders in the wake of the brutal murder of unarmed African American George Floyd in Minnesota.

Milley made the comments at a House Armed Services Committee hearing, which had been called to discuss the Pentagon’s response to nationwide protests over racial injustice following the killing of Floyd while in US police custody and the growing support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

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The death of Floyd on May 25 was captured on video while a white police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes in Minneapolis.

Moreover, monuments honoring certain historical figures, most of them racism and slavery era icons, have been removed in the United States and around the world following Floyd’s death.

The US National Guard has been deployed to protect Confederate monuments in some states across the country as anti-racism demonstrators have gone as far as taking up arms to make their voices heard. 

A group of heavily armed protesters marched through Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta on Saturday, calling for removal of the giant Confederate rock carving at the site that civil rights activists consider a monument to racism.

The protesters all carried rifles, including military-type assault rifles, and some wore ammunition belts slung over their shoulders. African Americans appeared to account for the bulk of the marchers, but protesters of various races, men and women alike, were also among the group.

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