A 1992
piece for the US Army War College's military journal Parameters
was posted today
on Metafilter. It warned
what would happen if certain events ever fell into place in the
United States and how easy it would be for a military coup to end
democracy and be used to permanently install one person as a
dictator for life. The article, written long before anyone ever
heard of the Patriot Act, warns Congress against ever allowing a
president to start using the forces of the military for domestic
purposes against citizens of the United States.
"...If we're ever going to get our freedom back, we've got
to understand how we got into this mess. People need to
understand that the armed forces exist to support and defend
government, not to be the government. Faced with intractable
national problems on one hand, and an energetic and capable
military on the other, it can be all too seductive to start
viewing the military as a cost-effective solution. We made a
terrible mistake when we allowed the armed forces to be diverted
from their original purpose....democracy is a fragile institution
that must be continuously nurtured and scrupulously protected. I
would also tell them that they must speak out when they see the
institution threatened; indeed, it is their duty to do so.
Richard Gabriel aptly observed in his book To Serve with Honor
that...when one discusses dissent, loyalty, and the limits of
military obligations, the central problem is that the military
represents a threat to civil order not because it will usurp
authority, but because it does not speak out on critical policy
decisions. The soldier fails to live up to his oath to serve the
country if he does not speak out when he sees his civilian or
military superiors executing policies he feels to be wrong"
The shadow of Bush cast against a U.S. flag at a fundraiser
Rob is the founder of the progressive news site robwire.com 
