Moving on to “Crossing the Rubicon.” In ancient Rome there was a law that no standing Army will ever reside permanently within the borders of Rome heartland, and with the river Rubicon being a natural barrier on the road to inner-Italia, the crossing by any army, both foreign or domestic, meant a serious danger to the security of the republic. Julius Caesar crossed it to become a dictator and so on. If you want the whole story you should have paid better attention in history class, oh wait… they do not teach you about such inferior things in schools these days. Still, there is Discovery Channel. Look it up.
Any standing army has leaders, whether or not they are military themselves. An army has to oblige to the orders given by its superiors following the normal chain of command, regardless if the orders can be contrary to actual soldier’s morality or beliefs. An army has the most significant ability to enforce an agenda with the use of physical force at its disposal. Therefore, the presence of an army can lead to dissolution of individual and common freedoms should the army commanders (military or government) decide on that to happen. That is why in order to prevent a coup d’état (forcible seizure of power, government overthrow) and secure civilian liberties and a government “by the people and for the people,” it is paramount to keep a significant armed force out of the reach of a select few for use in domestic affairs. Policing is the job of law enforcement and not the army.
As one of the repercussions of 9/11, the US Department of Homeland Security was formed on the grounds of providing a higher level of law enforcement security, focused against possible terrorist threats. Since its forming in 2002 and especially in the past months, I observe that the DHS has grown into something far more than just another shadowy law enforcement agency. Armoured Personnel Carriers are not tools for combating crime, unless you are fighting drug cartels in Mexico, but that struggle is in essence an outright war. This agency is becoming more and more like an Interior Army and thus a force that could be easily used for power seizure should there happen to be people willing to give the order.
Russia has a separate armed forces branch subject not to the MOD (Ministry of Defence), but to the Interior Ministry, alongside law enforcement like police, and it is literally called the Internal Army. The tasks are as follows: combating internal threats to the state, quelling civil disorder, counter-terrorism operations, aiding the Ministry of Emergency Situations during natural disasters. Despite the fact that these guys are doing a mighty good job at limiting the spread of Islamic extremism from the Caucasus, they are in fact the backbone of every Russian government, and it’s the ultimate way to ensure everyone succumbs to the government’s bidding. It is kind of hard to have a successful opposition to a government backed by troops with tanks and helicopter gunships if they say NO to your demands for civil rights and liberties, unless you want to start a civil war, that is.
Another example comes from good old Poland. A few weeks ago I learned that a new law has been passed and is now in effect: to allow the armed forces to be used to tackle civil disorder without the need of declaring a state of emergency or martial law. This is a gigantic change in Rules of Engagement for the armed forces, yet no one here seems to have noticed this milestone.
What is more shocking, the government that erected this law is a direct descendant of the Solidarity movement of 1980’s that lost countless lives while the armed forces were used to tackle strikes by the anticommunist opposition, and was the number one organization on this side of the Iron Curtain that begun the struggle for liberty which ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.
The army is to be used in a support role for the police but will be granted same enforcement powers. Rules of using “means of direct enforcement” state clearly that firearms cannot be used against pregnant women, kids obviously under the age of 13 and disabled people, with a cunning exception in which such a person, woman or child would pose a severe threat to the life of someone else or the soldier (subject to the soldier’s or his commander’s own interpretation of severity).
Ever since the collapse of the communist system, the army was prohibited from engaging in internal security affairs, other than tackling the effects of natural disasters, to make it impossible to use it and its fighting potential against out-gunned civilians. For example, that is why elite Special Forces Units like JW GROM could not have been used to handle a hostage situation within the borders of the Republic of Poland. This is now history and with some obvious benefits, this poses a gigantic threat to the balance between the true civilian government and fulfilling dictatorial pursuits by extremists of whichever political wing or creed.
I can see that currently the U.S. Government steadily but surely develops the DHS into an Internal Army time and again probing the population’s reactions to the implementation of what is martial law in effect – as we saw in New Orleans during Katrina and recently in Boston. Sadly, not many people have stood up to the challenge to confront these unlawful activities, and some say America has failed a test as a free nation with what happened in Boston after the bombings. I believe this test was failed even earlier, because at this point it is quite hard to blame unarmed civilians for succumbing to scores of armed to the teeth, in reality soldiers, forcing their way into homes without the proper legal authority or just cause.
In closing, I would like to recapture on these issues and only emphasize the need for you people to get active. You might read this short letter (that eventually got out of hand and grew into a full article) and think: “Well, I know this and these issues are nothing new to me, I’m an active member of the NRA and attend all pro-gun events.” This is great, but how many of your friends and their friends also share your wisdom?
You would be surprised just how small the group of people that are really actively involved in fighting for liberty is. Not only for your country, but for the sake of us all. Because what happens in America soon translates accordingly to the rest of the world, and we’re already pretty much under the boot as things stand now. Are the recently sprouting scandals and instances of ill-application of law enforcement indicators that your country has gone past the point of no return, like it happened in the UK after the Dunblane Massacre when the government said “Turn in your guns for the sake of security,” and all the sheep blindly cheered the idea because it was “for the children”? I leave this for you to decide.
I tell you this however. Stay safe and stand fast!
Your mate from Poland,
Sergei
(Featured Image Courtesy: Author’s private collection)
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