Posted on 07/28/2018 10:05:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A military coup in the United States? What a far-fetched idea! The US military has always been under strict civilian control and has stayed out of politics. America is no banana republic where generals strut around in peacock uniforms and tell politicians what to do.
However, over the past year and a half America has changed beyond recognition. Who could’ve imagined that a US President would lie on average three times per day, attack the free press and the judiciary and side with a foreign enemy against the CIA and the FBI? Who could’ve thought that the Republicans would gleefully punch holes in the Federal budget and embrace Russia? Whose sick mind could’ve envisioned the Evangelicals thanking the Lord for a libertine in the White House? For that matter, who could’ve predicted that Donald Trump of all people would one day become the Leader of the Free World?
Trump’s supporters have said that his removal from power would lead to an armed rebellion. Indeed, the country is sharply – and irreconcilably – split along ideological lines. Can its military long remain above the fray?
Trump has accumulated a long list of transgressions against any conceivable military code of honor. He is a Vietnam-era draft dodger who got deferrals on the spurious excuse of bone spurs. Worse, he has ridiculed the fifty thousand Americans who died in that war by comparing their sacrifice to the risk of contracting clap which he ran while philandering in New York.
Trump had the temerity to insult the parents of a fallen military hero and make fun of John McCain’s captivity in Vietnam. He is yet to find time between his self-dealing golf outings to visit US troops in the war zone. He blithely excluded transsexuals from the armed forces while immigrant soldiers, to whom a path to citizenship has been promised, are being quietly discharged from the ranks. He’s cozied up to America’s enemies and it’s not at all impossible that the Russia investigation by Robert Mueller will uncover evidence of treason.
Nevertheless, opinion polls show that Trump’s approval ratings among active members of the armed forces are considerably higher than among the general public. The generals in his Administration continue to serve – unless dismissed by the boss or indicted by Mueller. Veterans of Foreign Wars clap to his self-indulgent drivel at their convention and boo the free press at his urging.
Soldiers are taught not to think for themselves, follow orders and respect their superior officers, especially the commander-in-chief. But there is more to it than that. Trump has increased the Pentagon budget and talks of additional expenditures, such as the creation of a space force. The military loves parades of the kind Trump is staging on this year’s Veterans Day. They buy into his jingoist rhetoric, such as threats to use military force against North Korea, Venezuela and Iran, and support his demand that NATO members up their contribution to joint defense. Even his insistence that football players stand for the national anthem to honor the troops sits well with the enlisted personnel – albeit it’s only an empty gesture and a race-baiting exercise.
But there is a darker side to all this. America’s volunteer army doesn’t represent a cross-section of the population – the way citizen soldiers envisioned by the Founding Fathers would have done – but are heavily skewed toward Southern whites. The South, however, is entirely Republican. A century and a half after losing the Civil War and five decades after being forced to desegregate, it seems ready to refight the old battles. Trump’s racism, nativism and hatred of the “Yankee” establishment appeals to far too many men and women in uniform.
The rebel cause is now suddenly popular among rural and working class whites as well. A drive through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois – the backbone of the Union Army – reveals numerous Confederate flags flying over houses.
Divisions in society have made their way into the armed forces, too, mirroring the overall ideological divide. In late 2017 a poll found that enlisted personnel are heavily pro-Trump, with his supporters making up more than half. Not so among the more educated part of the military – the officer corps. Here, Trump’s base is about as narrow as it is in the country at large, or around 35%.
Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have mattered. Naturally, soldiers and officers have always had their personal political beliefs and voted according to them, while the military as an institution remained apolitical and did what the commander-in-chief ordered them to do.
That has changed – irreversibly perhaps – at the age of Trump. Among changes wrought upon the American political landscape, perhaps the most crucial has been the politicization of law enforcement. Trump is obviously scared of what Mueller may uncover about his ties to Russia, his financial dealings with Russian oligarchs and his campaign’s collusion with Russian intelligence. To protect himself he has politicized the FBI, claiming that the investigation into his dealings with Russia were driven by the Democratic sympathies of career law enforcement professionals, thus impugning their professionalism and integrity. At the same time, he is also working on destroying the independence of the Justice Department.
The politicization is inexorably creeping into the armed forces. The civil war that is being threatened by Trump supporters could trigger a rebellion by the enlisted personnel. Racism, which has flourished under Trump, could open a massive rift between white soldiers on the one hand and their African-American and Hispanic comrades on the other, undermining the fighting spirit of the military.
Equally frightening are developments on the geopolitical arena. There is a possibility that, if Mueller starts getting too close to Trump, the President could start a war. He has already threatened Iran in an all-caps tweet in a clear attempt to deflect questions about his bizarre meeting with Putin. Trump’s ignorant self-confidence, lack of intelligence and unwillingness to listen to experts, including his generals, may drag America into a nasty conflict. His misguided confidence in his own negotiating skills could leave America without vital support from its allies.
At the start of Trump’s presidency I wrote a column predicting that his earliest actions would include a purge the US military, in which he would replace high-level generals with his loyalists and yes men.
This is what aspiring authoritarians do as a matter of course – because the armed forces are a key center of power that rivals their own. Stalin notoriously effected a brutal purge of the Soviet military. He killed off almost all larger-than-life Civil War heroes and strong, independent commanders and turned the Red Army into a docile collection of nonentities it remains to this day.
More recently, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan spent years declawing his country’s military whom he rightly saw as a threat to his power grab – and still faced a coup attempt.
American generals are starting the speak inconvenient truths. Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of US Central Command, dismissed a suggestion that the US and Russia should work together in Syria to ensure the return of refugees. Russians complained loudly about him, claiming that he was “discrediting President Trump” since the two presidents has discussed such cooperation in Helsinki. Trump probably didn’t like it very much, either.
We’ll see whether Votel long endures in his position, but the writing on the wall is clear. Trump has already drawn a list of his enemies among retired intelligence professionals whom he is threatening to strip of their security clearance. The media has been under relentless attack by him and his followers for months, and punishment is starting to be doled out. It’s a start. A purge in the military has merely been delayed and is certainly coming – unless the military strikes first.
What a jackass.
Everything he posits isn’t happening under Trump but very much and publicly happened under Obozo.
Purge the military? Obama did it.
Actually attack the press? See James Rosen.
threats to use military force against North Korea, Venezuela and Iran, and support his demand that NATO members up their contribution to joint defense. Obama did nothing on this issue and even let people die in the streets of Tehran after signaling support for their desire to overthrow the Mullahs.
Among changes wrought upon the American political landscape, perhaps the most crucial has been the politicization of law enforcement. Oh, you mean like telling us a law enforcement officer “acted stupidly “, consent decrees to various law enforcement agencies nationwide, combined with constant prejudging law enformcment constantly and the insipid innuendo or outright lies by Obozo, Eric Holder and others that America is “Sohhh Wascist”?
The division of opinion between enlisted dolts and their erudite educated superiors could lead to a coup because the leadership may demand their simian soldiers attack? Shea right. And monkey’smight fly out of my butt.
Trump supporters could trigger a rebellion by the enlisted personnel. Okay, you retard. Did you even read what you wrote a couple paragraphs back? “In late 2017 a poll found that enlisted personnel are heavily pro-Trump”. You are such a tool.
Talk aboit jingoism and self serving opinion...
You wrote:
“there are probably 10x or more trained military veterans on the streets than exists in all services”
It’s worse than that.
There are more than 10 million hunters who bag game each year and another 30 million who are competent with scoped long guns.
That’s before we go Green Mountain men on them and look for a few Fort Tonderoga’s...
Do the math...
The bullet that takes out Trump will be the first bullet of CW II. Liberals unseat Trump—put in a liberal like Warren/Clinton or others as “Acting President” would spark states to fall away starting in the south and Texas. Then the fighting would start in earnest. Don Jr. would be elected President of the Constitutional States of America, Most of military would slip to the New CSA, Virginia Invaded, Washington would fall—A huge mausoleum would be built for Trump—he would be a new Lincoln. The war would come to an end when New York and LA Fall.
1) NO
2) who the heck let this Whacko Nutcase near a Keyboard?
You can buy a refurbished late model PC including keyboard, mouse and monitor starting at $50 online all day long. The day of $2,000 computers is long over, unless you want to pay that much. Secret: The welfare and unemployment offices give clients laptops with full software and two years of Internet service so they can use it to “look for a job.” I was a supervisor at the unemployment office.
He has written before in the same vein, total BS. I’m wondering if he isn’t a Russian troll planted deep inside this publication/news service (or whatever it really is).
A Russian who does not understand that the US does not do that.
Another foreigner who thinks they understand us
Drivel. Where’s the “Hurl Alert?”
Lies, lies, lies.
I always think of Kyiv Post as a CIA front - part of the Deep State. they carry the worst anti-Trump FakeNewsMSM rubbish imaginable. yet Trump has recently sent money to Ukraine. I wouldn’t send them a cent:
Wikipedia: Kyiv Post
American Jed Sunden founded the Kyiv Post weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995...
The Kyiv Post has had only three owners in its existence, Sunden, Mohammad Zahoor, a native of Pakistan, and Adnan Kivan, a native of Syria...
Sunden’s KP Media sold the newspaper to British citizen Zahoor on July 28, 2009.[7] Zahoor owns the ISTIL Group and is a former steel mill owner in Donetsk...
Zahoor published the newspaper through his Public Media company...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyiv_Post
the write of the piece being discussed:
Alexei Bayer is the Eastern Europe Editor of The Globalist (United States)
Mr. Bayer previously served as senior financial markets economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit and worked at Standard & Poor’s, serving as managing editor of CreditWire, an electronic bond rating service.
Born in Russia, Mr. Bayer has contributed to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Financial Times
https://www.theglobalist.com/contributors/alexei-bayer/
And you have to admire they way they rise to the challenge and do it.
It’s misdirection. Trump has nothing to fear from the military.
What HAS been happening for the last two years has been an attempted coup by the Deep State. We’ve seen how many Leftists are in the FBI and CIA. Trump is secure from the military. He should be cautious of his own Secret Service, though.
Not just You. You are not alone, I promise You this.
Who could’ve imagined that a US President would lie on average three times per day, attack the free press and the judiciary and side with a foreign enemy against the CIA and the FBI?
What a stupid piece of trash!!!!
Yeah, Zero wasn't guilty of this at all (*cough* transgender troops *cough*).
He killed off almost all larger-than-life Civil War heroes and strong, independent commanders and turned the Red Army into a docile collection of nonentities it remains to this day.
Yeah, that Georgy Zhukov (WWII) was a real pansy alright, and let the Germans walk all over him.
What this guy knows about history could be written on the point of a pin.
Same with USA Today and most of the US Mainstream Media.
I sure hope that Trump has a pre-recorded video with copies being held by Israel and a few conservative media in the event of his demise.
And CNN would be trying to outbid them...
Me too.....
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