The Second American Revolution

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The Second American Revolution by Mike Whitney

The deployment of mercenaries in New Orleans is a grave breach of traditional policy and a serious threat to the American people. The decision to use these corporate warriors has been accompanied by the equally provocative order to strip the remaining survivors of their legally registered firearms, thus depriving them of the 2nd amendment rights.
Who appointed Bush as God?
The safety and security of the city's people is now in the hands of armed militias who have no allegiance to the Constitution and whose relationship to the government is uncertain. These hired goons are not required to conform to The Military Code of Justice or to the legal restrictions that govern the conduct of military personnel.
There is no set of circumstances, neither natural disaster nor terrorist attack, which justifies the use of paid killers on the streets of America's cities.
None!
The presumption that these units are assisting in the relief effort is patently false. The order is clearly intended to militarize a critical American port and establish a precedent that could place the nation under military rule.
The appearance of the Blackwater mercenaries in New Orleans has produced the effect for which it was designed; to strike fear into the hearts of the local people and to convey a feeling of pervasive repression in the wake of a major disaster. They have apparently succeeded on both accounts.
They operate secretly and with complete impunity, guided by no principle other than the insatiable desire to increase profits for themselves and their investors.
Blackwater represents the globalization of repression; a free-market progeny that is transforming the people's army into privately-owned militias for multi-national corporations. The deployment of these armed-units is a clear threat to public safety and personal liberty.
The decision to send Blackwater mercenaries to New Orleans was not made haphazardly. A recent Washington Post article indicated that Donald Rumsfeld would use the military more extensively within the US if there was another terrorist attack on American soil. It's clear now that the use of mercenaries was integral to that plan and that Rumsfeld wants Americans to acclimate to the idea of seeing troops deployed within their cities.
The danger of this strategy cannot be overestimated. If, for example, organized resistance sprung up in New Orleans in response to Bush's disarmament orders or to FEMA's blundering evacuation plan, we could see skirmishes that could explode into city-wide fighting.
Or, if peaceful protests broke out in New Orleans, and dissenters were shot by trigger-happy mercenaries, as they were in Falluja, Najaf and Baghdad, the situation could quickly escalate into massive riots and open rebellion.

The deploying of mercenaries is a flagrantly provocative and hostile act intended to incite widespread violence. We should not allow Rumsfeld or Bush to thrust the nation towards greater turmoil by applying their iron-fisted theories of social order within the country.
The nation has never been more polarized. Rumsfeld's reckless move could provide the spark for violent conflagration.
Is that what he wants; a second American Revolution?

Mike is a freelance writer living in Washington state.

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