According to the channel, the agency may submit a change that implies only a ban on the demonstration of confederate symbols.
The U.S. Department of Defense plans to introduce innovations in the near future aimed at eliminating symbols associated with racial or social inequality. This was reported by CNN on Tuesday, citing military sources.
According to them, the new Pentagon policy on controversial symbols is expected to be presented “within a week”. At the same time, CNN stresses that it is still not known how the innovations will affect the rules of demonstration of the war banner, under which the soldiers of the Confederation during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) fought for the preservation of slavery.
Sources from CNN indicate that the U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is considering two main options. Thus, the head of the Pentagon may present a change that implies only a ban on the demonstration of Confederate symbols. However, it is possible that the new policy of the U.S. defense agency will affect a wider range of issues.
In early July, CNN reported that the Pentagon is actively discussing possible changes to racist and other oppressive symbols. However, according to the TV company, it is not known whether the approval of U.S. President Donald Trump will be needed for their entry into force.
Earlier the chairman of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff (CSC) of the U.S. Armed Forces (AF), General Mark Millie, criticized the presence of symbols associated with the confederates in the U.S. military. “This [Confederation, Civil War] was an act of rebellion. <…> It was an act of treason against the Union, the flag, against the U.S. Constitution, these officers [Confederates] turned their back on their vows,” Millie said at a hearing before the House Committee on Armed Forces Affairs.
Trump, in turn, called it “a matter of free speech.”
“I know people who love the flag of the confederates, and they do not think about slavery”, – said the American leader. – “I just think it’s freedom of speech: whether it’s the Confederate flag or Black Lives Matter, or anything else that people want to talk about”, – he added.
Arguing about symbols
The controversy over the expediency of preserving the confederate symbols has heated up in the United States with renewed vigor after the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis (Minnesota). Police used an asphyxiant device to arrest him on May 25. Shortly afterwards, the African-American died in hospital.
A day later, all four detainees involved were dismissed and charged in the following days. After Floyd’s death, protests against the abuse of black people’s rights, clashes with police, and numerous cases of looting and vandalism began in several states.