Pentagon bans Confederate flag on military installations in carefully worded policy

Military commands in South Korea and Japan quickly followed suit. The new policy does not affect or rescind those bans.

The other three military services were all moving to enact similar bans, but they paused when Esper made it known he wanted a consistent policy across the whole department. Now they will instead issue this new policy to their troops and employees.

Defense leaders have for weeks been tied in knots over the incendiary issue of banning the Confederate flag,

An early draft of the Defense Department plan banned display of the Confederate flag, saying the prohibition would preserve "the morale of our personnel, good order and discipline within the military ranks and unit cohesion." That version was shelved, and officials have been struggling since then to come up with a policy that would have the same effect but not create political havoc.

Esper discussed the matter with senior leaders during a meeting Wednesday, including some of the legal issues surrounding a variety of bans, which some officials believe could be challenged in court.

The final version is a compromise that enables Esper to enact a ban that passes legal muster and gives military leaders what they want, but doesn't infuriate the commander in chief.

Pherllerp on July 17th, 2020 at 17:00 UTC »

“It is the policy of the United States Military to not display flags of vanquished enemies. Particularly those who were traitors to the United States itself.”

Policy defined.

Edit: Go ahead, be pedantic with a stranger on Reddit and pretend you don’t understand context.

ithinkitsbeertime on July 17th, 2020 at 16:33 UTC »

Leaving the race issues aside, why on earth would a symbol of sedition be allowed on military installations?

KuhjaKnight on July 17th, 2020 at 15:52 UTC »

This is a critical point to understand:

The policy, laid out in a memo obtained by The Associated Press, was described by officials as a creative way to bar the flag's display without openly contradicting or angering President Donald Trump, who has defended people's rights to display it.

They had to word it so that it doesn’t specifically ban it because the Bunker Bitch would throw a tantrum. Instead, they wrote the policy in the reverse: only specifically spelled out flags are allowed. They just omitted the Confederate flag from the list of those allowed.

I bet Trump still throws a fit.