You make good points in your reply. Of course, the commies may resort to brutal tactics of mass punishment. After all, that's their model for societal control.
I'm by no means an expert or especially learned in this area but I think that, given the general American character, they would have trouble recruiting and controlling military or police personnel to commit atrocities on the scale needed to cow the population. I could be wrong on this point but I would hope not.
The traditional defense against cell structure action groups that are implied in our discussion is infiltration. If the authorites can mobilize enough resources to efficiently infiltrate and nuetralize these cells quicker than they can be formed and put into action then they may be successful in obstructing their usefulness.
But this is all theoretical speculation and who knows what may happen in the future and what events may lead to their necessity. Equally, who knows what the outcome may be.
...but I think that, given the general American character, they (a despotic American regime) would likely have trouble recruiting and controlling military or police personnel to commit atrocities on the scale needed to cow the population. I could be wrong on this point but I would hope not.
telebob, you are right that they would have trouble recruiting and retaining enough native born Americans for the military or police to be able to carry out atrocities on a scale large enough to cow the rest of the population and keep the country/people under control.
However, you can't say the same for many, if not most of those of those residing here who are foreign born. They do not have the general American character that most native born or those who legally immigrated here who have a love of freedom have.
When you count the illegals, we have more foreign born residing here now than at any time in our history. I've read that a couple of years ago, 25 percent of our active duty military was foreign born. A truly despotic government may, in just a few more years, might just attempt mass punishments like you described if they can get enough foreign born under arms.
Another way a despotic domestic regime can do this is for them to bring in foreign mercenary soldiers with payment being something '50 acres and a mule' plus citizenship.
The third book in Matthew Bracken's (Travis Mcgee) 'Enemies' trilogy, Foreign Enemies and Traitors, discusses how several brigades of foreign troops (Kazaks, Nigerians and Mexicans, among others) are brought in to bring order and otherwise 'pacify' western Tennessee and Kentucky after a massive earthquake devistates the region. They are brought in because most in the U.S. Military refuses to 'pacify' the region and carry out brutal policies against their fellow Americans.
I've read all three books in Matthew Bracken's 'Enemies' trilogy and I highly recommend them, if you haven't already read them yourself. All three books contain realistic future scenarios of what can happen here in America in the not too distant future.
“they would have trouble recruiting and controlling military or police personnel to commit atrocities on the scale needed to cow the population”
Thus Obama’s civilian defense force. Same size and budget of the real military.
We can’t let it get to that point.