 "Day of Reckoning. Near David Koresh's Branch Davidian compound, agents move forward into position during the fatal siege." (US News & World Report, May 3, 1993.) And you thought Deliverance was scary? |
The spirit of the American military has changed since the days of World War II movies. In those days the US military was a citizen army of draftees and volunteers protecting the shores of the US and its allies after a clear act of aggression by a foreign country.
These days, the military has become a publicly funded career option for professional soldiers and soldier bureaucrats. The military no longer confines itself to the defense of the US. It has taken an active role in the internal struggles of other countries, often working closely with the Central Intelligence Agency to shore up military juntas and autocratic regimes against the citizens of those countries.
Those actions are largely covert and illegal and often aimed at civilians. Killing Hope by William Blum (published in 1995) documents 55 such military-CIA interventions in foreign countries since the Second World War.
So-called "surgical strike forces" are sent on hundreds of missions a week throughout the world, without declaration of war. According The Tampa Tribune, the Joint Special Operations Command, made up of covert operations units in the four services, works closely with the CIA and performs 280 missions a week. These are the "black bag" operations (The Tampa Tribune, March 1, 1996, "MacDill Special Forces Chief Installed")
At home, the military is expanding its role in the post-Cold War era. "Much of the military's intrusion has been accomplished without public notice," says Sam Smith, writing in The Progressive Review On-Line Report, March, 1996, in an article entitled Mission Creep: Militarizing America (cached).
The Progressive Review cites the appointment of General Brian McCaffrey, former commander of the US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), as drug czar. USSOUTHCOM provided military backup for US Latin American policy — a policy long linked with support of dictatorships, suppression of dissidents, human rights abuses, and death squads.
Like all vested interest groups, the US military seeks to expand its employment opportunities. The way to do this is to create new markets for services. One suggested market was social services work (The Washington Times, May 10, 1995).
A more likely avenue of employment for the US military, however, is warfare against civilians, in the manner of the Latin American juntas. Drug Czar McCaffrey's background in Latin America has doubtlessly prepared him well to play an important role in the war on civilians here in the US.
The US Air Force is recommending Special Operations aircraft design and development. The Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board says the "requirements for special operations will dramatically increase in the future," and that "the need for flexible covert intervention in both developed and undeveloped nations around the world appears certain." (Aerospace Daily, June 19, 1996.)
Contemporary US soldiers train for civilian warfare in Military Operations Urban Training facilities (MOUT). A MOUT facility is a full-scale mock-up of a modern small town, used to train soldiers to shoot and kill civilians. In one army base in Camp Lejeune, the Marines have constructed a 31-building town with a city hall, a church, a hotel, a business district, and condominiums. MOUT facilities sometimes have several hundred yards of built-in sewers to give the soldiers practice invading and occupying civilian areas.
According to Marines Get a Taste of Urban Warfare Against 'Enemies' at Home, which appeared in The Los Angles Times, July 11, 1995, one of the problems confronted during MOUT training is "what to do when guerrillas are hiding behind women and children." In those scenarios, "guerrillas" are the adult male civilians that the soldiers are trying to kill.
In such training, everyone presumes the US soldiers care more about the women and children than the husbands of those women and the fathers of those children ("guerrillas"). But the Waco incident proves that is just not so.