Worth reading ping. Maybe even worth a ping list ping.
Marking this thread.
This has always been the case throughout history. Soldiers and cops will always obey the orders of those in charge except in certain very narrow circumstances and I can only think of two that come to mind.
During WWI the French army told the officers to shove it and rebelled for a few weeks, didn’t kill any of the officers but refused to go into combat. It took the deaths of hundreds of thousands of French soldiers to cause this and it was pretty much obvious to all that their lives were being literally thrown away by the French general staff. After a few weeks the Americans were pouring in as replacement cannon fodder and the French killed the leaders of the mutiny.
The other was the break up of the Soviet Union, the soldiers were given the order to fire on unarmed civilians and they refused. I think it was partly because even the soldiers at that time could see the writing on the wall but even well trained soldiers will have a hard time obeying an order to shoot their own UNARMED countrymen. If those countrymen had been armed it would have been another story, they would have mowed them down without mercy.
Eventually every democracy degenerates into a dictatorship either through popular choice (Venezuela - Chavez), internal usurpation (Rome - Caesar) or external force (Athens). That’s why the founders made the central government weak and did not want a direct democracy. Well Lincoln/FDR changed the first and technology has pretty much changed the second.
Two points of contention with respect to the article. First, An officer’s oath is to the constitution, not the president, not the flag, not the branch of service, but to the constitution. Second, congress cannot change (amend) the constitution without ratification by 2/3 of the several states.
“Which is why uppity colonels don’t stay colonels for very long. Political appointees, my friends. That vision you have in your head of the noble military protecting your rights is just a dangerous fantasy. A fantasy you have to get rid of right now, before it gets you killed.”
Bravo Sierra. The only way to un-colonel a colonel is through a dismissal adjudged by a court martial or by a grade determination after an involuntary discharge. This guy’s full of crap. I’m not a political appointee, I am appointed by the commander-in-chief (the one holding the office on my commissioning date), not by a particular person.
Colonel ( :-P ), USAFR
Finally, someone with the eyes to see the truth and the guts to tell it.
Why do you think Strategic missile crewmembers carried sidearms when they were locked safely 150 feet underground behind a blast door? Not for their own protection from intruders. If one crewmember refused to follow an authenticated EAM, he might be persuaded to carry out his duty, or vice versa.
More Katrina gun confiscation, by the Nat'l Guard, police, sheriff's dept., Coast Guard
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Many would be gung-ho at first...and many, over varying periods of time would decide to abandon their posts to go home or join the insurgency.
The KEY to such movement would be the insurgency would have to be perceived as as holding the high moral ground.
No women, no kids. Don't damage the means of production/distribution. Focus on the apparatus of government ONLY. Reach out to the cops...allow them to patrol the streets to keep the peace IF they "look the other way".
Punish only the forces of oppression. Win the hearts and minds of the people.
There are orders we will not obey. I suggest all who are interested visit the Oath Keepers website.
I frequently have a fleeting moment where I would like to shoot a Colonel. Only it would not be to save the Constitution, it’s because he is my annoying bossy brother.