In an extraordinary rebuke, former US defense secretary Jim Mattis has denounced President Donald Trump's heavy-handed use of military force to quell protests near the White House and accused him of trying to divide Americans.
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"I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled," Mattis wrote.
Mattis had a scathing description of Trump's walk to a historic nearby church on Monday to pose with a Bible after mostly peaceful protesters were forcibly cleared from Lafayette Square.
He said he never dreamed troops "would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens - much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside."
"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us," Mattis wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. "We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."
Mattis called on Americans to unite without Trump. "This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children," he wrote.
Mattis said of the protesters that Americans should not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. He said they are rightly demanding that the country follow the words of "Equal Justice Under Law" that are on display at the US Supreme Court.
"The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values - our values as people and our values as a nation," Mattis said.
Mattis has generally kept a low profile since retiring as defense secretary in December 2018 in protest at Trump's Syria policy.
He had previously declined to speak out against the President, saying he owed the nation public silence while his former boss remained in office.
He resigned one day after Trump announced he was pulling all US troops out of Syria, where they were partnering with local Syrians to fight the Islamic State.
Trump soon turned on Mattis, calling him a failure. He claimed falsely he had fired Mattis.
"What's he done for me?" Trump said January 2. "How had he done in Afghanistan? Not too good. I'm not happy with what he's done in Afghanistan, and I shouldn't be happy."
Australian Associated Press
