The Possibility of A Military Coup in the United States
I haven’t written anything here in a while, mostly because Ace has been kicking ass and I don’t have much to say about the election (beyond the fact that I can’t understand how anyone could be okay with the possibility of Sarah Palin being president). But a friend of mine linked me to this story from the Army Times and I had to comment on it. Basically, the plan is to have the Army’s Third Infantry Division First Brigade Combat Team (about 5,000 troops) come home from Iraq in order to patrol the US. Keep in mind, these are not reservists or National Guard; this is the actual, regular Army. Supposedly their purpose here will be to deal with natural disasters or terrorist attacks, but if you read the article more carefully, you learn that they are training “to help with civil unrest and crowd control…weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.”
Basically, what they’re training to do is disperse, incapacitate, and arrest protesters.
Thoughts after the jump.
The reason this concerns me is because normally, such jobs fall to the police and in extreme cases the National Guard. Instead, we’re going to have soldiers who have trained and taken part in urban warfare, ready to be deployed on American streets in the event that protesters become too unruly for the liking of the federal government. This is not policing; this is not crowd control; this is the beginnings of martial law. This is the beginning of a coup. This is the beginning of fascism.
I realize that this more than likely sounds paranoid to some. But the fact is, no government lasts forever. To say that a military coup, or a fascist regime, can’t happen here because we’re a democracy is to invite those who would infringe upon our freedom for their personal gain. As Americans, it is our duty to vigilantly protect our Constitutional freedoms from all enemies–foreign and domestic.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in the coming months. But there’s a very real possibility that this will not end well, that the rights we hold as entitlements will be threatened. I suggest all who are concerned take steps to prepare themselves. Buy guns, buy ammunition, buy canned food and bottled water. The worst thing that will happen is you’ll be prepared for a natural disaster. But we may need to be prepared for something far more insidious, and I’d rather be called paranoid for worrying about a totalitarianism that never comes, than be unprepared for one that does.
Our government looks less like a democracy every day. Maybe these troops are for when the bailout plan is revealed to a giant hoax and theft of the American people’s money.
Yeah, you gotta love $700 billion doled out with the promise that this will fix everything, despite the fact that stocks continue to drop because everyone who knows anything about the market knows it’s fucked. Hell, the Dow’s dropped almost 1400 points since last Thursday. That’s insane. Bad things are going to happen; all that’s left for us to find out is the degree.
it is really strange that you mention this, I go to a website (yeah there is some strange stuff on there, but some stuff makes sense too!) called http://www.whatdoesitmean.com and they have been saying for awhile now that our army is going to be here for civil unrest situations, and even talk of concentration camps for protesters. scary stuff, huh? I think some crazy stuff WILL happen, the survivalists have been talking about it for years and have stockpiled food and other supplies knowing this day was coming sooner or later. Just be prepared, the best you can I guess. Thanks for the good article!
You guys are really smokin’ something. If there is a TERRORIST ATTACK, especially one more serious than the one on 9/11, one that may cause more chaos and more destruction, these soldiers are being trained to HELP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OUT. Not stage a coup.
In hindsight, seeing as Obama is elected, do you dolts still feel the same way? Is Darth Cheney poised for a coup?
“College Being” doesn’t seem to the right name for this site.
“Useful idiots” may ring more true.
How about some READING COMPREHENSION and dropping the liberal paranoia.
I find this fascinating. Will this amount to anything? So far that seems unlikely. But if it does, who’s going to benefit?
Let’s play tinfoil for a minute. If Obama wants this to reassert power over the US in the wake of his scandals and declining popularity, I’d be curious to see how much of the Army stayed loyal to him and how much openly balked at such orders.
Supposing the Army totally rebels against such a thing, OR has designs of its own, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to have the Army impose a new government, and what that might look like (I don’t think anyone in the Pentagon is deluded enough to think the people would tolerate open junta rule for long). Interdasting.