In 1981, a military review parade in Egypt turned into the assassination of groundbreaking president Anwar Sadat. I fear the same thing could happen here.
There is news today that a dozen or more of the 25,000 National Guardsmen assigned to duty securing the Inauguration have been removed from duty. I’m not sure whether to be relieved or even more worried.
Surely it’s good that a handful of the Guardsmen were turned in by their peers or exposed by their social media posts as being potential right wing extremists. But I’m just as convinced that the number of military and law enforcement personnel who harbor similar sentiments is much larger as a percentage.
IT seems pretty clear that our Armed Forces and Law Enforcement agencies are riddled with right wing, conspiracy-believers, who harbor hatred for anyone who opposed Trump. What’s to say that an entire ‘radicalized’ unit couldn’t turn a military review into murder?
So I nearly trembled when it was announced that many of the Guardsmen would be armed. Those automatic weapons could create enormous carnage in a short time. And I fretted even more when learning about the close proximity of a number of military members immediately after the swearing in ceremony.
From NBC News:
After the swearing-in ceremony is completed, Biden and Harris will take part in a Pass in Review with members of the military on the East Front of the Capitol. Pass in Reviews are a military tradition that honor the peaceful transfer of power to a new commander-in-chief, and every branch of the military will be represented.
I just hope those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are armed only with ceremonial weapons and not the real thing. I no longer take for granted that a coup attempt in the United States cannot happen.