by Lance Thompson

We have had two instances recently of municipal authorities evicting Marines from their cities. During the last week of January, the city council of Berkeley, California, issued a statement saying Marine recruiters weren’t welcome in their city because of the service’s policy of "don’t ask, don’t tell" toward gays–a policy instituted during the Clinton administration. Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley has subsequently issued an apology, following a public uproar and the introduction of measures in both houses of Congress to withhold federal funds from Berkeley.

More recently, on 8 February, Toledo, Ohio, mayor Carty Finkbeiner canceled a Marine urban warfare exercise in his city. The Toledo exercise had been conducted at least three times before in the city, had been planned for weeks, and had been authorized by all relevant city departments. Finkbeiner did not inform the Marines they were unwelcome until they were arriving at the site for the exercise. The mayor’s reason for the reversal was that the exercise would "frighten people."

Evidently, the civic leaders of Berkeley and Toledo believe that taking these confrontational positions against the USMC makes them heroes in the eyes of their liberal supporters. After all, if you can push Marines around, it makes you look pretty tough, right?

No, it makes you look like an imbecile. Marines take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, follow orders from the President and the chain of command, and defend this country with their lives.

It takes no courage to mistreat those who are sworn to protect you. If those civic leaders want to demonstrate real courage, let them kick out those who are determined to destroy them. Kick out Islamic jihadists, the al Qaeda sympathizers, the apologists for terrorists hiding behind the cloak of Islamic benevolent organizations. Let them kick out the criminal organizations like MS-13 who have invaded our country from across the border. Let them kick out the home grown gangs, the child predators, the common criminals who do nothing but prey on the innocent.

But expressing disapproval for society’s real enemies would leave those leaders open to condemnation by their more sensitive supporters. Better to tolerate society’s predators, and adopt an understanding pose, rather than be labeled insensitive or racist or xenophobic.

Those civic leaders continue to tolerate those transgressors, because they know terrorists and criminals will not obey their edicts. They may, in fact, retaliate against any hint of disapproval with a gun or a bomb or an attack on our citizens.

And that attack is just what every Marine, every man and woman wearing the uniform of the United States, has pledged his or her life to prevent. Those Marines who are unfit to recruit in Berkeley or train in Toledo have taken on the noble mission of preserving this democracy and defending it with their lives.

The civic leaders of Berkeley and Toledo who made these pronouncements do not deserve the protection provided by our armed forces. But they’ll continue to get it, because our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have made a solemn commitment to provide it.

The citizens of Berkeley and Toledo now have a real opportunity to show courage and class. Show Berkeley’s city council and Toledo’s mayor that they aren’t welcome in their respective cities by voting them out at the ballot box, in the democratic process that Marines have been defending for 232 years.

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Lance Thompson lives in Boise, Idaho, where men and women in uniform are held in high esteem.