Quote:
Originally Posted by m4a1mustang
I highly doubt we will have to fight off our own military any time in the near or distant future. 
Plus, the only reason the resistance is working over there is because we screwed up in the first place and are trying to fight an unconventional war in a conventional manner. But that's an entirely different discussion. |
Well, the reason we don't decisively win like you'd expect when we try to occupy foreign cities basically comes down to not wanting to slaughter the masses.
Obviously, if it were considered morally ok by everyone involved (the media, our own government, our soldiers, etc), we could easily just annihilate an Iraqi city and kill virtually everyone in it and declare victory. We certainly have the weaponry for it. But when every little civilian casualty causes an uproar, you have to tip-toe around and try to coerce the population into submission without killing them all. *That's* a hard battle to win. If the military were ever deployed against Americans domestically, they'd be in the same scenario.
As for the likelihood, that's really not even important to me. I don't expect the military to ever seize control of the public in the US. But I also think that the fact that the populace here is armed, which would make such an endeavor much more costly and difficult for the military, is an important part of the checks and balances that keep this country free from tyranny. It makes sure that the thought doesn't cross someone's mind down the road, under different circumstances.