I think directly ordering the US military to go into a pretty normal US city and use “full force” against the Americans there, actually makes him less dangerous than he otherwise would be.
It is still terrifying, but imagine if it was someone clever enough to just leave things at their current boiling point until there are widespread attacks on ICE agents and cops, real unrest and people laying seige to ICE facilities, all the while he is currying favor with the military and police of the country instead of actively doing everything he can to antagonize them, and then he tries to do the clampdown, while framing it as if it’s something else. Instead he’s just calling up all these pretty patriotic high level military people and saying “Hey I need you to go shoot my opponents, who are Americans” and just assuming they’ll be fine with it, what’s the worst that could happen.
It might work. But he’s definitely not doing a great job at helping it to be successful.
I don’t feel like the US military brass would do that, exactly… but they might stick their necks out to make it clear that they’re getting illegal orders and they don’t plan to follow them. They did do a very mild version of that before (and gave some speeches about the principles involved which some of the current protestors are playing over loudspeakers at their protestors when they encounter the National Guard which I think is fuckin’ fantastic).
Of course I’m just speculating, I have no real idea how it might play out. In Ukraine in 2014, retired military people joining up with the protestors and teaching them all about how to fight effectively and win, now that it was a big fight with deadly force, had a huge amount to do with them routing the government forces so thoroughly. I feel like Trump doing everything he can to push US military people that same direction along that same axis is absolutely great.
In Ukraine in 2014, retired military people joining up with the protestors and teaching them all about how to fight effectively and win,
Let’s cover the basics: don’t pop up when they’re shooting at you, have a lot of friends, flanking wins the battle, lay down suppressing fire for your (lots of) friends to move to better angles (for those flanking wins) (i.e., shoot and scoot), check your corners, height advantages make even more places they need to be looking and they often don’t, retreat when you’re outnumbered is a really good idea.
Specifically in authoritarian or totalitarian regimes since Senior officers both have a lot to lose financially if the regime falls and typically are as guilty as the people they serve.
That’s a fair point, I’ve been thinking about how they’re going to get cornered by their own stupidity and then do the cornered animal thing of lashing out even more violently, but maybe a few years of explosive frightening chaos is better than a slowly descending suffocation
I think directly ordering the US military to go into a pretty normal US city and use “full force” against the Americans there, actually makes him less dangerous than he otherwise would be.
It is still terrifying, but imagine if it was someone clever enough to just leave things at their current boiling point until there are widespread attacks on ICE agents and cops, real unrest and people laying seige to ICE facilities, all the while he is currying favor with the military and police of the country instead of actively doing everything he can to antagonize them, and then he tries to do the clampdown, while framing it as if it’s something else. Instead he’s just calling up all these pretty patriotic high level military people and saying “Hey I need you to go shoot my opponents, who are Americans” and just assuming they’ll be fine with it, what’s the worst that could happen.
It might work. But he’s definitely not doing a great job at helping it to be successful.
This is the kind of pressure that opens the door to a military coup.
I don’t feel like the US military brass would do that, exactly… but they might stick their necks out to make it clear that they’re getting illegal orders and they don’t plan to follow them. They did do a very mild version of that before (and gave some speeches about the principles involved which some of the current protestors are playing over loudspeakers at their protestors when they encounter the National Guard which I think is fuckin’ fantastic).
Of course I’m just speculating, I have no real idea how it might play out. In Ukraine in 2014, retired military people joining up with the protestors and teaching them all about how to fight effectively and win, now that it was a big fight with deadly force, had a huge amount to do with them routing the government forces so thoroughly. I feel like Trump doing everything he can to push US military people that same direction along that same axis is absolutely great.
Let’s cover the basics: don’t pop up when they’re shooting at you, have a lot of friends, flanking wins the battle, lay down suppressing fire for your (lots of) friends to move to better angles (for those flanking wins) (i.e., shoot and scoot), check your corners, height advantages make even more places they need to be looking and they often don’t, retreat when you’re outnumbered is a really good idea.
In a strictly hypothetical situation, you left out “slicing the pie”
Lol, I surely did. I just hate that term, wish we could come up with anything else.
Coups are often executed by very junior officers.
Specifically in authoritarian or totalitarian regimes since Senior officers both have a lot to lose financially if the regime falls and typically are as guilty as the people they serve.
Let’s see if the military brass are still here next week.
That’s a fair point, I’ve been thinking about how they’re going to get cornered by their own stupidity and then do the cornered animal thing of lashing out even more violently, but maybe a few years of explosive frightening chaos is better than a slowly descending suffocation