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Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest

Documents reviewed by The Post detail a prospective National Guard mission that, if adopted, would require hundreds of troops to be ready round-the-clock.

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National Guard troops and law enforcement officers in Los Angeles in June. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

The Trump administration is evaluating plans that would establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest, according to internal Pentagon documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

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The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour, the documents say. They would be split into two groups of 300 and stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of regions east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively.

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