re: "It could get there, but I doubt it."

SEE:

The U.S. economy is in an intensifying inflationary recession that eventually will evolve into a hyperinflationary great depression.

http://www.shadowstats.com/article/292

And this was written before the shit hit the fan.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

-George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., (September 17, 2002)

I simply cannot believe that there would be anywhere near a majority of either officers or enlisted personnel in the U.S. military who would blindly follow illegal orders to fire upon their fellow citizens, whether using lethal or non-lethal force, merely in order to prop up what even many of them are coming to see as a quasi-dictatorial regime. We're not talking about Hitler's SS here. We're talking about mostly lower-middle class American boys and girls, led by mostly patriotic and intelligent American officers -- good people, all. Does anyone think they're all just going to roll over and become Bush zombies/robocops? They all have civilian relatives, ya know.

It is more likely to me that these, our fellow Americans, will ultimately turn their weapons on the cowering politicians.

Have some faith in your fellow Americans, my friends. Absent that, you might as well speculate that instead of wasting their time taking pots shots at us, they'll just dispense with us all, Auschwitz-style.

Glad I was able to spark some discussion.

You may be interested in this:

http://www.history.army.mil/faq/oaths.htm

Our soldiers swear an allegiance to the Constitution of the United States -- and to "obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

If the U.S. Military was ever to be ordered to turn its might on American citizens en masse, I would wager that there would be a complete breakdown of military order as most of its officers and enlisted personnel would rightly refuse to do so as a violation of their oaths. These are, after all, Americans -- not, as I pointed out, Hitler's SS.

Insofar as Blackwater, et al, they may be deployed on a limited basis to protect the lives and property of the wealthy who hire them, but too many Americans are quite well-armed themselves to have Blackwater's jackbooted thugs overwhelm the population as a whole.

I have faith in the fierce patriotism of Americans. Any attempt by Bush to use the Armed Forces of this nation to suppress its own citizens won't result in martial law -- it will result in an overthrow of the Bush regime.

Given that the full might of the entire U.S. military has been focused on pacifying Iraq for the last 5+ years -- unsuccessfully -- it hardly seems likely that they could even begin to pacify the whole of the United States under any conceivable circumstances, even if they were inclined to try, which, as I have maintained, ain't gonna happen.

There are a million hypothetical scenarios we could discuss that might lead to narrow, specific incidents, but I believe that we are all Americans first and that by nature we would resist anyone, for any reason, attempting to put us under martial law.

There would be another American Revolution before that happened. Hell, people are already outraged at the thought of Bush picking our collective pockets for his Wall Street pals.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=5876413

And that comes from just 11 of his best buds!

Time to pass the hat among your "base", bonehead!

Without a doubt.

McCain -- shot down in flames once again. Well, there's another war story he can tell his glassy-eyed followers.

Buh bye, 'pubs!

I'm not sure what else I can add to what I've already posted.

Yes, it is possible that SOME soldiers and officers would behave as you fear, but it would take more than a few psychos to deal with the entire United States citizenry -- a fairly heavily armed citizenry, at that.

I have met and read about too many fine soldiers and officers to believe that they would all just turn into a bunch of mindless thugs for Bush.

If you cannot, at the very least, understand the basic difference between a bunch of lower-middle class American boys and girls -- the volunteers who make up the enlisted ranks -- and Hitler's SS, I don't believe we have any basis for discussion.

See my response to heru-ur, below.

re: "can you admit that the present discussion pertains to something that is very concerning, at least in precedent?"

If you are referring to the basic legal point made by GG, I have no issue with it. It is of concern, of course.

I do, however, have nothing to discuss with anyone who hasn't a clue as to who the SS was or what it did, and sees no difference between a member of the SS and your average American soldier.

That's not only stupid, it's obscene.

This has nothing to do with me believing that Americans are innately better than anyone else.

This is becoming absurd.

This is now become utterly preposterous.

Please do yourself a favor and read about the SS.

Read about Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, the Warsaw ghetto...

I will refrain from saying anything else, lest my blood pressure rise to an unhealthy level. My posts stand.