Skip to main content

This is not what our sons and daughters enlist to do...

From AWC:

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.

The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned Wednesday of economy-related riots and unrest in various global markets if the financial crisis is not addressed and lower-income households are hurt by credit constraints and rising unemployment.

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., both said U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson brought up a worst-case scenario as he pushed for the Wall Street bailout in September. Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO, said that might even require a declaration of martial law, the two noted.


Granted, it is what the Federal Government did during the early years of the Great Depression, when military force was used to disperse the Bonus Army in the so-called Battle of Anacostia Heights.

It's worth pointing out--for those fond of meaningless historical parallels--that President Hoover, not President Roosevelt, ordered out the troops.

Meaningless, why? Because we have had ample warnings over the past two weeks of a dangerous tendency for the upper echelons of the US military to want to wag the dog of civilian foreign policy choices.

We've had continuing SecDef Gates talking about the many years we're going to be in Iraq.

We've had generals in Iraq discussing the fact that they won't keep the SOFA agreement requiring us to be out of Iraqi cities by the end of June.

We've had generals and senior politicians cautioning the incoming administration about not closing Gitmo too quickly, and not abandoning the flexibility to torture.

It all begins to sound suspiciously like President-elect Barack Obama is being given a not-so-subtle message by the defense/industrial complex: Play around with the domestic economy all you want, Mr. President, but you're not going to be allowed to institute a sea change in foreign policy.

My liberal and progressive friends tell me to wait and see--Obama's made of sterner stuff, and when he's president he'll bring them to heel.

I hope they're right.

We've got a lot riding on it.

Comments

Mike W. said…
Wouldn't using troops as described in the article be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act?
Unfortunately, Mke, the Pentagon since the 1990s has been steadily chipping away at the legal foundations of Posse Comitatus, with help from Congress.

See my earlier post for details

http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2008/09/slippery-slope-toward-banana-republic.html

Popular posts from this blog

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba