Because Trump lackey, Christopher Miller's special orders turned them into liabilities, more helpless, poorly armed bodies to protect.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/01/c**p-f01.html"The memo approved the use of only 340 National Guard soldiers and imposed extraordinary limitations. It stated:
This memorandum responds directly to your January 4, 2021 memorandum regarding the District of Columbia request for District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) support in response to planned demonstrations from January 5-6, 2021. You are authorized to approve the requested support, subject to my guidance below and subject to consultation with the Attorney General, as required by Executive Order 11485.
Without my subsequent, personal authorization, the DCNG is not authorized the following:
* To be issued weapons, ammunition, bayonets, batons, r**t control agents or ballistic protection equipment such as helmets and body armor.
* To interact physically with protesters, except when necessary in self-defense or defense of others.
* Prohibited from sharing “equipment with law enforcement agencies” or seeking support from any non-DC National Guard units.
* Forbidden from conducting “searches, seizures, arrests, or other similar direct law enforcement activity.”
* Forbidden from using “Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance assets” or to conduct “Incident, Awareness and Assessment activities.”
* No helicopters or “any other air assets.”
This general stand-down order stands in stark contrast to the deployment of federal military police during antipolice violence protests in D.C. on June 1. On that occasion, on the approval of McCarthy, two military helicopters, a BlackHawk and a Lakota with a Red Cross emblem, flew low over protesters across from the White House, whipping up dirt and debris. The dangerous and threatening maneuvers broke several Federal Aviation Administration and international laws that forbid the use of medical helicopters for crowd dispersal."