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No Wonder Americas Founders Distrusted Standing Armies

It is well documented that many of Americas Founding Fathers had a very real and deep-seated distrus t of

standing armiesand f or good reason. They had just f ought a cos tly and bloody war for independence,

which had been largely predicated upon the propensities f or the abuse and misuse of individual liberties by

pervasive and powerf ul standing army (belonging to Great Britain) amongst them. Listen to Tho mas

Jef f erson: I believe that banking institut ions are more dangerous to our liberties than st anding armies.

Note t hat Jef f erson identified both banking inst itutions and st anding armies as being dangerous to our

liberties. James Madison said, A st anding army is one of the greates t mischief that can poss ibly happen.

Elbridge Gerry (Vice President under James Madison) called st anding armies the bane of liberty. For the

mos t part, the sentiments of our f ounders ring hollow to modern Americans who, ever since World War II,

have glorif ied, idolized, and practically even worshipped the standing US military. But o f course, with only

iso lated instances (which were almos t always completely covered up by the mainst ream news media) o f the

abuse of military power being committed against US citizens, the American people, as a whole, have no po i

of ref erence directing them to the sagacity o f Americas f ounders on the subject. Indeed, who could even

imagine that US military f orces would ever be used against the US citizenry? Af ter all, the media did a

masterf ul job o f covering up the mos t f lagrant example of US military f orces being used against US citizens

when US military f orces assisted f ederal law enforcement agencies in s laughtering the Branch Davidians

outside Waco, Texas, o n April 19, 1993. So, most Americans simply shut their eyes against that painf ul

truth and chose to ignore the f act that it even happened. Yes, there have been isolated instances of milita

personnel abusing their authority against American citizens (i.e., Waco in 1993, Kent State University in

1970), but overall the f ounders deep-seated distrust o f standing armies has been replaced with deep-

seated trust . But were our f ounders right to be distrus ting of standing armies? And are we wrong to be so

trus ting of standing armies? Consider the f ollowing report by Dr. Andrew Bosworth. There is a shocking

piece of legislation working its way through Congress . A Defense Authorization bill for 2012 allows f or

military detentions of American citizens on American soil. These can be indef inite detentions, with no trial.Bosworth quotes an ACLU (an organization whose ef f orts regarding the so -called separation o f church

and state issues I strongly oppose, but whose ef f orts regarding issues that can only be identif ied as an

emerging police state I st rongly support ) s tatement as saying, The U.S. Senate is considering the

unthinkable: changing detention laws to imprison peopleincluding Americans living in the United States

itselfindef initely and without charge. The Defense Authorizat ion billa must -pass piece of legislationis

headed to t he Senate f loor with t roubling provisions that would give the President and all f uture

presidents the authority to indef initely imprison people, without charge or t rial, both abroad and inside the

United States. Especially egregious are sections 1031 and 1032. They: (1) Explicitly autho rize the f ederal

government t o indef initely imprison without charge or t rial American citizens and others picked up inside and

outside the United States; (2) Mandate military detent ion of so me civilians who would otherwise be outside

of military cont rol, including civilians picked up within the United States itself ; and (3) Transf er to theDepartment of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enf orcement, penal, and custo dial author ity

and responsibility now held by the Department o f Just ice. Bosworth also no tes that , The bill was draf ted i

secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee

meeting, without even a single hearing. Bosworth goes on to say, Even mainstream, apolitical Americans

would be concerned about such a provision that, on its f ace, is unconstitutional. Ordinary Americans are

already waking up to the specter o f tyranny, and the NDAA f or 2012 would accelerate that process . Near th

conclusion of Bosworths report, he st ates, As many Americans know, fo r over a decade there have been

dozens of pieces of legislation and executive orders that have chipped away at the US Constitution,

specif ically at its Bill of Rights . The war on terror was originally to be waged against f oreigners in far-awa

lands, but Rep. Ron Paul was right, the anti- terro r infrast ructure is swinging around to be used against

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American citizens.

See Bosworths report here.

I well remember when my f riend LT CDR Ernest Guy Cunningham conducted his Combat Arms Survey to

300 active-duty Marines at the USMCs Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif ornia, back on

May 10, 1994. A couple of quest ions in this s urvey were especially revealing (and start ling). John McManus

picks up the sto ry at this point: One of the quest ions asked the Marines if t hey would be willing to be

ass igned to a national emergency police f orce within the U.S. under U.S. command. The survey showed tha

6.0 percent strongly disagreed, 6.3 percent disagreed, 42.3 percent agreed, 43.0 percent strongly agreed,and 2.3 percent had no opinion. Commenting on these results, Cunningham said, Do you realize that 85.3

percent agreed with ass igning troops to a mission that violates the Posse Comitatus Act? Remember, thes

were active duty Marines back in 1994. Responses to another question were even more startling.

Cunninghams quest ion: Consider the f ollowing statement: I would f ire upon U.S. citizens who ref use o r

resist conf iscation o f f irearms banned by the U.S. government. The result: 42.3 percent s tro ngly disagree

with this statement; 19.3 percent disagreed; 18.6 percent agreed; 7.6 percent strongly agreed; and 12.0

percent had no opinion. This equates t o approximately 61% of Marines saying they would defy orders t o

turn their weapons on US citizens in order to disarm them; 26% saying they would not disobey such orders

and 12% refusing to say one way or the o ther, which means you could probably add them to the 26% who

would not diso bey orders to t urn their weapons on American citizens.

See McManus report here.

Not to o long ago, I asked a retired US Army Major General what he thought the results would be today if

CDR Cunningham gave that same survey to US Marines? He said he thought that the number of those

ref using such orders would be much higher and the number of those complying with such orders would be

much lower. Given the Levin/McCain bill currently working its way through the US Congress, I sure hope hes

right! And I also hope that we modern Americans were not wrong to discard our f ounders dist rust of

standing armies. *If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an

ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link.

2011 Chuck Baldwin All Rights Reserved

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