Danger in the Military

I have just read this morning that two of the National Guard troops that are supposed to be providing security for Biden’s inauguration have been removed because of their ties to white supremacist groups. This is precisely what I’ve been thinking about lately: the danger to this country that comes not from outside groups like ISIS, but rather from deep within both our military and our local police forces. The PBS Newshour had a segment on precisely this issue last night, and it was not reassuring. The upshot of the piece was that since National Guard commanders do not have as much contact with those under their command as military officials in a regular army outfit might, they wouldn’t be likely to know the background of those who have plans to disrupt something like an inauguration, or guarding a State House. As a result, the higher-ups are very nervous about this inauguration, and the parallel threats to disrupt state capitols around the country. The FBI’s disqualifying of the two guardsmen proves the point; and we can only hope that the FBI has truly vetted all 24,000 soldiers who will remain on duty in DC. 

The larger point, however, and the greater danger comes in the future. Why? Because once the current threat is over, we will still have a very active, and determined group of crazies who will be looking for more opportunities to “liberate” their nation and bring it back under white control—i.e. what they understand by Make America Great Again. And these groups and so-called militias are a) armed to the teeth, and b) actively recruiting current military members to join them, either covertly or overtly. They judge, and they are probably right, that the men who join the all-volunteer military these days are heavily drawn from rural and southern states. That means they are more likely to be sympathetic to white supremacist appeals, if not already actively engaged in, trained in white supremacy and racism. This brings up what I have long considered the defect of the all-volunteer military, which has been the direct outcome of the distaste of well-educated and urban men for military service. This was proven in the Vietnam war era. Indeed, when I was a member of the Army Reserves in late 1959 through 1965, the bulk of my fellow soldiers were serving reluctantly, mainly to avoid the draft. But the presence in these reserve units of many such men who were older and well-educated meant that few of them were susceptible to the foolish rewards or chauvinistic inducements that attracted younger troops. That alone put a damper on calls to spit polish and adopt the “motto of the bayonet” (kill, kill) and so on. It made, in my opinion, for a more balanced and intelligent and thoughtful army, not just in the reserves, but in the regular army as well.

No more. The all-volunteer military attracts mainly high school grads looking for a way to enliven their dull lives, to escape from smalltown or depressed-urban life, and for something to give them a wider perspective and experience (perhaps abroad) that they would never achieve on their own. By this self-selection process, the military now tends to gather inexperienced men (and women) who are more likely to have narrow views of what society should be like, and, at the extreme end, of how whites should be able to regain the privileges they believe they should continue to have by right.

Thus, the military proves to be a prime recruiting ground for militia and white-supremacist groups (they’re often the same) to strengthen their ranks. The fact that those who’ve been in the military are trained in the use of various kinds of weaponry and other ordnance like explosives is an added bonus. The same incentive pertains for local police departments. Former military members are a natural fit for police departments that have increasingly become occupation forces. These departments gladly take advantage of Pentagon sales and donations of military equipment like armored personnel carriers to make them feel safe when engaging in riot control, or hostage situations or civil unrest generally. The end result is that police departments, like the military, find themselves with a good percentage of men who are predisposed to see black or Hispanic men, especially in cities, as the natural enemy, and white militias as more or less like them, and deserving of consideration as normal citizens. This was demonstrated in the recent invasion of the U.S. Capitol, where several instances were documented of Capitol police literally welcoming the invaders into the Capitol, and generously escorting them out when they were done. Not all, certainly; but enough to make the point. 

The other crucial factor in this looming danger is the alarming ease with which citizens in this nation can procure guns, from handguns to the most lethal automatic weapons available. This has been demonstrated with sickening regularity in recent years. Real psychopaths have been able to arm themselves with an arsenal of weapons fit for a war, and massacre civilians almost without limit. And many of the militia types arrested in recent years have been found to prize most of all their cache of weapons, which they always claim they have assembled for “self-defense.” They routinely claim as their most precious right their Second Amendment ‘right to bear arms.’ No other advanced industrial nation allows its citizens this kind of access to lethal weaponry. The fact that the possession of such arsenals is considered “normal” in the United States speaks volumes about both the mental health of this nation as a whole, and the danger such a widespread distribution of heavy weaponry represents to the general welfare. If millions of men armed to the teeth ever manage to assemble with a common purpose, they would present a formidable challenge to any force trying to control them to maintain civil order. And since many of them, with origins in the military or local police forces or both, have been thoroughly trained in the use of these weapons, as well as the optimum tactics for deploying them, the danger they present is only multiplied. 

Is there a solution to this dilemma? I can think of several, but any solution, in my opinion, must begin with getting a lot more information on who these militia groups are, and on the people in the military and the police forces are who have affiliations with these militant groups that espouse white supremacy. What the FBI is allegedly doing with the National Guard deployed for Biden’s inauguration is a good start, and needs to be extended throughout the country. Second, this nation has got to get a grip on the widespread possession of firearms among many of its citizens, and put a limit on what arms a civilian may possess, and the number of weapons which are reasonable for any one person to have. It is insane, first, for the Supreme Court to have interpreted the second Amendment as applying to “all persons,” when its language clearly was meant to apply to “well-regulated militias,” that is, to citizens’ armies organized to protect the nation from outside invaders. Whether or not the genie—well over 300 million weapons in the hands of crazies—can be put back in the bottle is an open question, but the attempt for more reasonable gun laws must be made. Finally, statutes can and should be enacted that can control both the language and the intent of armed groups. Militias that openly announce their intention to foment a civil war or a race war, like the so-called boogaloo movement, cannot be allowed to operate freely. Curbs must be placed on these groups to prevent just what happened in the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago. And anyone who argues that such behavior is protected by either the First or the Second Amendment needs to be disabused of those notions, by pre-emptive action if necessary. The clear and present danger must be faced by authorities like the FBI, acknowledged, and acted upon. Fast. 

Otherwise, this nation is headed for its final days as a free society, as a Republic, and as a functioning democracy. 

 

Lawrence DiStasi