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September 11, 2016 – The Patriots Day Coup
Two articles came to my attention that I wanted to throw out there for our readers to feed on. One deals with the potential threat of a defense budget and industry out of control, and the other (posted separately) deals with the WE Political Party to counter the Tea Party movement. I found that one very interesting, because instead of bashing the Tea Party movement, the author recommended taking the best ideas from it and making them progressive (the ideas that is not the Tea Baggers).
This first post will be in two parts to allow the initial reaction to set in. Although I do not buy everything in what appears to be a very good plot for a remake of the movie Dr. Strangelove or The Rock about renegade U.S. military generals losing it. However, the scenario does stress just how divided and angry America is, plus how out of control our Defense budget remains.
The scenario that William J. Astore presents in his fictional account, A Very American Coup Coming Soon to a Hometown Near You, does leave readers with food for deep thought that goes a bit beyond a script for a motion picture about renegade Generals at the Pentagon.
Astore wrote this piece to make a point about the need to begin reversing an ongoing militarization of the Nation, especially our rising Defense Budgets, or the scenario of a military coup could in his words, “Happen Here, Unless We Act.”
William Astore is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who had taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy (no not religion) and the Naval Postgraduate School.
Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News
Coming Soon to a Hometown Near You
Astore’s scenario begins six years from now during September 2016. It is now year 15 of America’s “Long War” against terror. As weary troops return to the homeland, a bitter reality assails them: despite their sacrifices, America is losing.
Iraq is increasingly hostile to remaining occupation forces. Afghanistan is a riddle that remains unsolved: its army and police forces are untrustworthy, its government corrupt, and its tribal leaders unsympathetic to the…U.S. intervention. Since the Obama surge of 2010, a trillion more dollars have been devoted to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and other countries in…central Asia, without measurable returns; nothing, that is, except the prolongation of America’s Great Recession, now entering its tenth year without a sustained recovery in sight.
Take America Back
Disillusioned veterans are unable to find decent jobs in a crumbling economy. Scarred by the physical and psychological violence of war, fed up with the happy talk of politicians who only speak [hypocritically] of shared sacrifices, [Vets] begin to organize. Their motto: take America back.
Meanwhile, a lame duck presidency, choking on foreign policy failures, finds itself attacked even for its putative successes. Health-care reform is now seen to have combined the inefficiency and inconsistency of government with the naked greed and exploitative talents of corporations. Medical rationing is a fact of life confronting anyone on the high side of 50.
Presidential rhetoric that offered hope and change has lost all resonance. Mainstream media outlets are discredited and disintegrating, resulting in new levels of information anarchy.
Protests from across the political spectrum
Protest, whether electronic or in the streets, has become more common — and the protesters in those streets increasingly carry guns, though as yet armed violence is minimal. A panicked administration responds with overlapping executive orders and legislation that is widely perceived as [even more attacks] on basic freedoms.
The Frustration Revolution
Tapping the frustration of protesters — including a…mainstreamed “tea bag” movement — the ‘former’ Captains and Sergeants, the ex-CIA operatives and out-of-work private mercenaries of the War on Terror take action.
Conflict and confrontation they seek; laws and orders they increasingly ignore. As riot police are deployed in the streets, they face a grim choice: where to point their guns? Not at veterans, they decide, not at America’s erstwhile heroes.
A dwindling middle-class, still waving the flag and determined to keep its sliver-sized portion of the American dream, throws its support to the agitators. Wages shrinking, savings exhausted, bills rising, the sober middle can no longer hold. It vents its fear and rage by calling for a decisive leader and the overthrow of a can’t-do Congress.
Savvy members of traditional Washington elites are only too happy to oblige. They too crave order and can-do decisiveness — on their terms. Where better to find that than in the ranks of America’s most respected institution: the military?
The Coup of September 11, 2016
A 
retired senior officer who led America’s heroes in central Asia is anointed. His creed: end public disorder, fight the War on Terror to a victorious finish, and put America back on top. The United States, he says, is the land of winners, and winners accept no substitute for victory.
Nominated on September 11, 2016, Patriot Day, he marches to an overwhelming victory that November, embraced in the streets by an American version of the post-World War I German Freikorps and the police who refuse to suppress them. A concerned minority is left to wonder (and tremble) at the de facto military coup that occurred so quickly, and yet so silently, in their midst.
Although Astore’s fictional account makes a decent plot for a movie, he contends that It Can Happen Here, Unless We Act.
The second part of this two part article will cover in detail what LTC. Astore recommends we do in order to prevent this fictional scenario from becoming reality.
Nope he does not recommend anything as near radical or irrational as his fictional account. In fact, it is exactly what he recommends that if more realistic and thought provoking than the attention getter of a military coup in 2016 that he uses.
Posted by: Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=16584
Posted by Robert L. Hanafin on Feb 19 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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There are many liberals and progressives so disgusted and fed up with the two party corporate parties, they are looking to bail. We have been thinking for at least 10 years how create a third party. The problem lies in the fact the two parties have made it near impossible to get a 3rd party off the ground. The rules and regulations they have put in place is almost impossible to undermine. You have to have party status in every state in the nation. That has been tried by Ross Perot, the Greens and others. The biggest hurdle is the “electoral college”, its not geared up for 3 or more parties. In PA they are beginning a “populist party” movement. It would take decades to build such a movement and we dont have that time.
So, we are stuck for now with the two parties. We need to take back the democratic party and make it the party of people. It was Bill Clinton and the blue dogs who wanted to create the democratic party as a gentler, kinder version of the GOP. That was what Evan Bayh was all about and why we have so many republicrats in our Senate and Congress. We can take back the party, by asking every candidate running for office no matter what office. Are you a card carrying supporter of Israel? That is the number one question. It is AIPAC that is picking and choosing all our electeds behind the scenes. Second, as a candidate will you refuse ALL corporate donations? Three, will you abide by campaign financing laws? Until those three issues are decided upon, unless candidates will agree to those issues, do not vote for them, do not give them money, and then back the candidate heavily with money and your volunteer time to get them elected. That means we will have to throw out of office at least 80% of those now serving.
[...] is a follow-up of my article on September 11, 2016 – The Patriots Day Coup, the first story was a fictional account used by Lt. Colonel William J. Astore as an attention [...]