Big brother is watching. And he’ll be damned if you upstart revolutionaries pull a “fuck you, King George” on him:
A key and understudied aspect of full spectrum operations is how to conduct these operations within American borders. If we face a period of persistent global conflict as outlined in successive National Security Strategy documents, then Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil. Army capstone and operating concepts must provide guidance concerning how the Army will conduct the range of operations required to defend the republic at home. In this paper, we posit a scenario in which a group of political reactionaries take over a strategically positioned town and have the tacit support of not only local law enforcement but also state government officials, right up to the governor. Under present law, which initially stemmed from bad feelings about Reconstruction, the military’s domestic role is highly circumscribed. In the situation we lay out below, even though the governor refuses to seek federal help to quell the uprising (the usual channel for military assistance), the Constitution allows the president broad leeway in times of insurrection. Citing the precedents of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and Dwight D. Eisenhower sending troops to Little Rock in 1957, the president mobilizes the military and the Department of Homeland Security, to regain control of the city. This scenario requires us to consider how domestic intelligence is gathered and shared, the role of local law enforcement (to the extent that it supports the operation), the scope and limits of the Insurrection Act–for example maintaining a military chain of command but in support of the Attorney General as the Department of Justice is the Lead Federal Agency (LFA) under the conditions of the Act–and the roles of the local, national, and international media.
The Scenario (2016)
The Great Recession of the early twenty-first century lasts far longer than anyone anticipated. After a change in control of the White House and Congress in 2012, the governing party cuts off all funding that had been dedicated to boosting the economy or toward relief. The United States economy has flatlined, much like Japan’s in the 1990s, for the better part of a decade. By 2016, the economy shows signs of reawakening, but the middle and lower-middle classes have yet to experience much in the way of job growth or pay raises. Unemployment continues to hover perilously close to double digits, small businesses cannot meet bankers’ terms to borrow money, and taxes on the middle class remain relatively high. A high-profile and vocal minority has directed the public’s fear and frustration at nonwhites and immigrants. After almost ten years of race-baiting and immigrant-bashing by right-wing demagogues, nearly one in five Americans reports being vehemently opposed to immigration, legal or illegal, and even U.S.-born nonwhites have become occasional targets for mobs of angry whites.
In May 2016 an extremist militia motivated by the goals of the “tea party” movement takes over the government of Darlington, South Carolina, occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council, and placing the mayor under house arrest. Activists remove the chief of police and either disarm local police and county sheriff departments or discourage them from interfering. In truth, this is hardly necessary. Many law enforcement officials already are sympathetic to the tea party’s agenda, know many of the people involved, and have made clear they will not challenge the takeover. The militia members are organized and have a relatively well thought-out plan of action. […]
[…]
When the leaders of the group hold a press conference to announce their goals, they invoke the Declaration of Independence and argue that the current form of the federal government is not deriving its “just powers from the consent of the governed” but is actually “destructive to these ends.” Therefore, they say, the people can alter or abolish the existing government and replace it with another that, in the words of the Declaration, “shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” While mainstream politicians and citizens react with alarm, the “tea party” insurrectionists in South Carolina enjoy a groundswell of support from other tea party groups, militias, racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, anti-immigrant associations such as the Minutemen, and other right-wing groups.[…]
Yup. Constitutionalists are radicals. “Mainstream politicians and citizens” are those who happily accept the move to an authoritarian government run by liberal fascists bent on “fundamental transformation” of the US into a democratic socialist state.
Learn who they are and what they think of you. Me, I’ve got a gun show to attend.
(h/t Blake)
One would like to think enough of the military will remember their oath is to the Consitution, not the government.
Um… if we want to read the whole thing… link?
“. . . race-baiting and immigrant-bashing by right-wing demagogues . . . ”
And the editors of the Journal tolerate this fantasy? Woe unto them.
After a change in control of the White House and Congress in 2012, the governing party cuts off all funding that had been dedicated to boosting the economy or toward relief.
And this pisses off the TEA party?
In May 2016 an extremist militia motivated by the goals of the “tea party” movement takes over the government of Darlington, South Carolina … The militia members are organized and have a relatively well thought-out plan of action.
What part of “well thought out” arrived at the conclusion that Darlington SC was the place to be?
One would like to think enough of the military will remember their oath is to the Consitution, not the government.
Thus the need for a force “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”
Nary a mention of OWS. The only useful thing in this article is the indication of just how insitutionalized this kind of narrow and biased thinking has become.
was pelosi a co author?
I was thinking of Ed Schultz, newrouter.
Greetings:
Quoting: “In this paper, we posit a scenario in which a group of political reactionaries take over a strategically positioned town and have the tacit support of not only local law enforcement but also state government officials, right up to the governor.”
Sounds like the Friskko-Californikka Axis to me.
“…anti-immigrant associations such as the Minutemen,…”
anit-ILLEGAL immigration, but they knew that.
So much propaganda and bias in one article.
charlesaustin,
It seems utterly counter-productive to use a “Tea Party rebellion” as a possible scenario when the OWS “black bloc” kiddies are claiming “blood will flow” at the RNC in Tampa, and in Oakland, they’re using highly-toxic hydroflouric acid in attacks (against public property, at least for now). The numbers of OWS protesters may be dwindling, but what’s left are the most “committed” and anarchic.
If there is a rebellion it won’t be organized and it won’t be from the right. It will be from the folks who are not longer being provided for like they were promised.
I don’t think it will happen, for the same reason it didn’t during the last Great Depression.
http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/blog/2012/08/the-kurds-the-mideast-wild-card
There’s a missing step; assume Romney & the Establishment do not implement sudden and dramatic reforms: the economy stays flat and the MBM/Prog alliance manage to put Obama back in for 2016. The mask is off and central planners openly and explicitly usurp our Constitutional rights. Then an uprising in Spring 2017.
Huh. Perhaps the US Army scenario-artists should read this NYT article…
Actually a decent article, if you can shovel through the sympatico.
The hell, serr8d? Why wouldn’t you want to gentrify your decrepit and crumbling business districts? It’s the only thing that saved Baltimore from being a moonscape, like Detroit.
I read an article months ago about people bitching about whites moving to Harlem and fixing up the older homes there and preserving historic architecture. There was talk along the lines of “We don’t want their kind here” from Bro-on-the-street interviews.
If no one wants us and our industrious white people ways, we’ll stay in the ‘burbs and vote to keep our tax dollars. Keep this up and going from city to suburb is going to be a regular Checkpoint Charlie.
Google up “Bonus Army 1932”.
Google up “Bonus Army 1932?.
Maybe. Just depends on how bad things get before WWIII erupts in the Middle East.
leigh,
Yes, but somebody, a lot of somebodies, made evil PROFITS in Baltimore, and that simply must not be allowed. Ever.
Oh, they don’t want us to stay in the ‘burbs, or at least not comfortably, and they really really want our tax dollars. Not only will we not be keeping them, if they get their way, we’ll be paying a lot more than we’re paying now.
Unsurprisingly, the NEA is a big supporter of this, even if their suburban member teachers get screwed.
Yeah, Spiny I read that article a few days ago. I’ve lived in the ‘burbs most of my life and it’s been my experience that the one thing that gets us fired up is property taxes. And bond issues for stuff like cushier jails and school spending. We live out in the country now and those are the issues that still get all the gentlemen farmers fired up.
In my typical white person experience, I haven’t known too many people who have been inmates and fewer who give a damn about jail being comfortable and uncrowded. Schoolwise, suburban schools already have great facilities for learning and sports. People with a couple more dollars opt to put their kiddos in prep schools. The religious send theirs to parochial schools. Urban schools? Not our problem.
Thing is, last time there was a coup in the US it started in South Carolina — and it was Democrats, tired of having to compete for votes from the people they used to hold title on, who started it.
I suspect a future coup will have much the same motivation. Your average Democrat voter is going to get really pissed when welfare is cut off, and they no longer have multiple people working to provide them with a comfortable living.
The problem with urban schools has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with the attitude of the parents, students, and teachers. When the students want to learn, their parents take an interest in that learning, and the teachers are adequate (they don’t have to be great), learning will occur.
As long as doing well in school is “acting white” then nothing will improve.
What are they going to do? Ride the bus out to come and get us?
I read a story in the NYT (engineered to play on the sympathy of the reader) when Clinton was pres, about women moving from Welfare to Work and how difficult it was for them. There was an anecdote about one woman who had never paid a utility bill in her life and was shocked and angry about how high her heating bill was for January at her (subsidized) apartment. Apparently, it is common practice in Public Housing to run the heat full blast while keeping all of the windows open.
[…] here, via Jeff. As he says: learn who they are, and what they think of you. Completely disgusting. But, as […]
I think Darlington was chosen as a slap to NASCAR lovin beer swillin’, gun toting rebel yellers and the non democrats they vote for.
Are the authors aware that NASCAR is the most watched sport in America? Might be the wrong folks to pick a fight with.
That wasn’t a military strategy scenario, that was a Berkely Democrat Party recruiting flyer.
Seriously, guys, this is what happens when you hire Andrew Sullivan to write articles for the Small Wars Journal.
Additional free joke: Small Wars. Very Small Wars. Virtually Non-Existent Wars. Actually Made Up Wars.
Supposedly right-wing terrorists are universally shunned and derided.
Actually left-wing terrorists are college professors and “just a guy in the neighborhood” of the Democrat President of the United States.