Reply #47: private armies

[Two Americas]

Private armies is one way to get around the draft, and there is another that has been falling into place quietly. Over 900,000 people have been rounded up and detained right under our noses. Already some have been given the choice - join the military and you will become a citizen, otherwise out you go. Since these ongoing warrant-less round-ups are all secret, and people are held incommunicado and denied attorneys or any contact with the world, we don't really know what is happening fully. We do know that many citizens and legal aliens who happen to be brown have been rounded up. We do know that there has been a lot of abuse and coercion of detainees. We do know that they are completely helpless in the hands of the authorities, and there is no oversight. We do know that at least some have been offered citizenship if they will go into the armed forces.

But everything is OK, really it is, if only we critics and dissidents would STFU and stop "being negative" and "whining" and "bitching" and "discouraging people."

Madfloridian is right in seeing that these things are all tied together, whether it seems logical that they should be or not. Each battle represents another piece of the right wing game plan, and failing to see the overall pattern, and failing to fight them aggressively on all fronts is to be complicit, even if unwittingly. When we do finally see exactly how all of the pieces fit together, it may then be too late.