[Grovenet] military running the country

Tue Nov 28 08:49:03 PST 2006

Times change. I remember that a serious objection to General Eisenhower
running for President in the 1950's was the idea that a senior military
officer should never be in the Oval office. Eisenhower's huge popularity
based on his successes in WWII carried the day, but it was a serious concern
to many, many people.

Here in the USA we narrowly escaped with our constitution in General
Washington's administration. A very serious group of citizens approached
President Washington with the idea of his setting aside the constitution and
declaring himself Emperor of the United States. We were in terrible straits
back then, dealing with the financial collapse of our country having no
central banking, trade or commerce facilities and huge civil unrest. Many
historians think Washington would have succeeded in a virtually bloodless
coup. But it was the General himself who declined and so preserved our
nation under the Constitution. 

Perhaps it was that close call that made people wary of General Eisenhower
in the 50's - another hugely popular military and political figure. 

Until recently we here in the USA always took the position that we should
never have a strong military. Our huge military is a cold-war artifact.
Before that the US professional military were a relatively small cadre whose
job it was to lead a citizen-army if and when one should be needed. That's
exactly what happened in WWI and again in WWII. That was the genesis of the
idea that each man in the USA had a personal responsibility to fight for his
country in time of need: the citizen-soldier. The draft of WWII wasn't about
deciding who served on the front lines and who didn't. It was simply a way
to call up people to serve in an orderly fashion with as little disruption
to the overall effort. Even when I served in the late 50's the "draft"
wasn't about whether or not one served, but only when. Every male who had
two legs and two eyes was going to serve, sooner or later. 

It was only in the long, drug-out face-off with the communist movement
called the cold war that we accepted the idea of a large "standing army"
here. And now there seems a strong sentiment for hiring a mercenary army to
protect us, assuming there are enough ne'er-do-wells out there in our
society who will jump at the opportunity to bleed and die for the rest of
us. (I don't think the concerns about the draft and universal service
presented here are unusual. I suspect those folks represent a large
percentage of the American population: perhaps a majority.) 

In that process of raising a "volunteer" army we'll load our society with
hundreds of thousands, at least, of such people who have been denied the
"advantages" of other citizens, all of them trained to fight and kill for
what they want. 

I can't say that I'm comfortable with that picture. 

On a lighter note, perhaps there won't be enough "Americans" who are willing
to do that job, just are not enough Americans will pick our crops. Then we
can hire Mexican illegals to serve in the military and "protect" us <G>

Ron D'Eau Claire 

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of JBlair2154 at aol.com
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 10:16 PM
To: grovenet at rdrop.com
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] military running the country

In a message dated 11/27/2006 2:05:26 PM Central Standard Time,  
grovenet-request at rdrop.com writes:

I think  someone would need to be NUTS to  
want the military running a  country.

Thanks for the clarification, David.  I DID misread the  sentence, and am
now 
greatly relieved to learn that you are not nuts!   (smile)

This topic stirred a memory of my first visit to Athens, in about  1967-68. 
My husband and I were strolling through a darkened section of the Plaka
rather 
late, with no one about, and passed some sort of building that  was
obviously 
closed for the night. But a light in a basement window caught my  eye and I 
glanced inside...to see a group of Greek soldiers in uniform, standing  in a

cluster and listening to someone. It felt like a secret, clandestine
gathering 
and I urged my husband to walk faster because I didn't want anyone to
realize 
we had seen what was going on.  Much later, I realized we had  probably 
witnessed a prelude to the military coup that overthrew the government. 
And just recently (not being a history buff) I found out about the  time
when 
our own government came periously close to a takeover by the  
military....complete with a plot to kidnap the President. That was a
shocker,  since I had 
always assumed that such an event "could never happen in the  USA."

Joy

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