I started to write this months ago, before Kamala Harris talked about a “new way forward." I have been convinced for years the Bush administration’s response to 9/11 was wrong, and we the American people have been put on the wrong course, which can only be described in my simplistic Army lingo as a huge “self-inflicted wound."
Our world at home began to change when the need for “homeland security” was established, based on assumptions that similar 9/11 atrocities would become a likely occurrence in the future. 9/11 was a tragic, bizarre occurrence, and the strategic response altered our lives within the so-called domestic domain. All at once, the “homeland” had to be brought under the protection of a specially designated “homeland security” organization. The very term “homeland security” sounded superfluous to me as a military officer in the face of an existing, immense defense establishment that had the resources to deploy worldwide, beyond our own borders, to provide for our national security.
Tragically, this faulty war-on-terror threat assessment conjured up the fixation of historically aged-out “militias” and created the now existing mix of military weapons and munitions readily available to the entire spectrum of citizenry. It is becoming more and more evident that the much-envied American domestic tranquility is all but gone amidst some very strange partisan political discourse that now openly mentions civil war.
The shock and awe impact of 9/11 was overwhelming on our American psyche. You see, America’s historical prism was honed by the Founders, and our history is unlike France, for instance, whose history has been violated by Brits and Germans.
The kind of 9/11 incursion for most Americans was unthinkable. Luckily, subsequent Osama bin Laden-like atrocities failed to materialize, but domestic community-based atrocities became common place as domestic terrorists proved to be predominantly mentally disturbed teenagers. The recent assassination attempt on the former president is just another example of Congress' failure to deal with the reality that the ready availability of military-grade weaponry in the hands of the freedom-loving general populace is morally unacceptable. It should be understood by intelligent people that the military control of small-arms weaponry is rooted in the national security domain and is manifest through an ever-present control of both weapons and ammunition by the chain of command. No such controls would ever be acceptable within the civilian domain without the imposition of dictatorial restrictions and controls.
Our law enforcement entities — at all levels, for years — have been dealing with a situation where the “threat is intertwined” with domestic entities in all communities. The Butler episode points out that community behavioral malignancies and easy access to weapons and ammunition is a volatile mix, and that customary threat assessments simply do not work. Congress should deal with the continuing destruction of domestic tranquility caused by the ready availability of military assault weaponry. This ultra-deadly environment adversely impacts our schools and communities and bewilders our law enforcement as the multitudes of mentally disturbed criminals are intertwined with the population they are sworn to protect.
Our law enforcement entities are now showing problems in retention and recruiting as they habitually face a no-win, ever-increasing lethal environment with the introduction of “drones." This domestic malignancy should not be allowed to be accepted as normalcy because it alters the doctrinal parameters of law enforcement, destroys our domestic tranquility and even confuses our Supreme Court. This is about where I ended before I listened to Kamala, who was reawakening the soul of America.
We have no choice but to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at dawn and at nightfall. The words “one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all” will take us off the road of fear, divisiveness and re-establish normalcy and domestic tranquility.
George Geczy Jr. lives in Taos.
(1) comment
Therehas been no "ready availability of military assault weaponry" since the NFA of 1934. If you think there is you are in sadly need of an education.
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