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The government has been given enormous new powers to “fight terrorism”.

Is anyone surprised that, in just a few short years, those powers are to be turned upon us?

Wherever and whenever, since 1789, the Left acquires as much power as they now have in the US, mass killings follow in short order.

The civil government, thanks to the War on Drugs, has a parallel architecture to the military's War on Terror template for intelligence collection, fusion cell operations, operational planning and focused targeting operations. Very few people who haven't worked on both sides realize how similar these systems are. They even borrow a lot of the same vocabulary.

In fact, a lot of what we eventually used in the military was originally implemented by federal law enforcement. So, if you're expecting the government to 'fight terrorism' in the U.S., looking at Iraq for urban warfare and Afghanistan for rural warfare would be instructive.

The difference takes a little bit of imagination, but not much. The factors are the same, but the impact of some are vastly magnified. As an example, information operations takes on a whole new dimension for the civil side, as does media cell operations on the insurgent side. Video become more powerful than guns. I understand your point about the French Revolution, but liberals can't bring back the guillotine. To play with the anachronistic example further, think of it like this. If someone takes a video of them using one to behead people and it winds up Facebook and goes viral, it destroys their narrative. So does the next 'logical' move, shutting down the internet. Once you lose the narrative, you empower your enemies in a way akin to shipping them free tanks.

I could go on, but the main point is, the U.S. Army was basically fought to a draw in Iraq and is losing in Afghanistan, using the best tactics money could buy against an semi-literate, dirt poor enemy that just refused to quit. At the end of the day, Iraqi tribalism and Afghan stubbornness defeated a trillion dollar war effort. Fighting terrorism the rich liberal way is a recipe for defeat if your opponent refuses to surrender. Fighting like Genghis Khan sounds scary, but the current U.S. Army won't do it against fellow Americans without facing a 80% desertion rate. Then it's anybody's game.

The moral? The Iraqis and Afghans knew something that Napoleon taught and we forgot. “In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”

Something to bear in mind.

Is anyone surprised that, in just a few short years, those powers are to be turned upon us?

Can one say 1984. - Orson Welles