Shattered Cross

I know a lot of fancy dancers,
People who can glide you on a floor,
They move so smooth but have no answers.
When you ask, "Why'd you come here for?"
"I don't know why."
--Hard Headed Woman, Cat Stevens

Don't bring me your tales of temptation and loss
The rags of your dreams
Your shattered cross
I have heard your confession I know who you blame
If you had it all back you'd just lose it again
--Shattered Cross, Darrel Scott
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A meditation on independence:

The Declaration of Independence is a simple, straightforward document, and illuminating when read not swaddled in the flag.

The words translated into action which created the USA, whose birthday we celebrate this weekend. But looked at another way, our Founding fathers were criminals and traitors as they were rebelling against the legally constituted government of the colonies.

These men whom we revere were guerrillas, insurgents and rebels, quite simply. In addition, the document which they penned was not quite so revolutionary when one takes into consideration that most of the ideas had already been stated in places like the 1689 English Bill of rights (Independence, British-Style). Their innovation was to cobble on Rousseau's concept of natural rights.

Fast-Forward to 2009, and this government has forces deployed to over 80 nations around the world. We now fight and kill guerrillas, insurgents and rebels, calling them an evil. It seems our moral yardstick is not so absolute as it once was, or perhaps it never was.

Our War Department has morphed into a Defense Department, which does not live up to the name. Our far-flung troops are not exactly defending the homeland. Running NATO right up to the Russian borders, fighting in AFPAK and shuttering 130,000 troops in Iraq is not exactly "providing for the common defense."

Yet instead of asking, "Why?" the American people get caught up in the war maker's fancy dancing about their "How". We are offensive, in a defensive sort of way, and even the liberal democratic politicians will not extricate us from these quagmires.

We fight wars to keep the Koreans from invading Korea, and to keep the Vietnamese from fighting the Vietnamese. Ditto Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. has bypassed the Prussian model, as the state exists as an instrument of the defense establishment and related industries. The President is relegated to the position of rubber-stamping Department of Defense policy.

The U.S. was born in violence and illegal revolution, yet we now fight to deny others this same option. Nations have the right to determine their own destiny -- this is the basis of the Declaration of Independence.

Times change, but principles are immutable. We hold these truths to be self-evident.

FM 17-76

"Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together,
or most assuredly we shall all hang separately
--Benjamin Franklin

I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you
--Happy Birthday, The Beatles
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Continuing FM 3-24 week, we will look at the tenets of that COIN Bible vis-a-vis our own revolution, which founded this Union 232 years ago today. Essentially, the FM is a refutation of the American revolution. With the benefit of hindsight, we could subtitle it, "Expeditiousness."

The Declaration of Independence placed the colonies in a state of rebellion against the lawful authority of Great Britain (pre-Coalition needs, mind.) 13 colonies in open insurrection, bearing arms against their government, utilizing militias integrated into the Continental Army for the purpose of evicting British forces from our Baby Homeland.

One of the most notable features of the Declaration is the principle of the people's right to denounce and overthrow their leaders should they fail to respect the people's laws and traditions. If true for Americans, why not true for Afghans and Iraqis?

Those peoples are not trying to overthrow their leaders, but rather to evict U.S. combat presence and the flunkies we have installed from their borders. This is the basis of sovereignty and democratic principle. Democracy is not imposed by foreign armies of occupation and Vichy - Quisling governments.

From FM 3-24 (p. D 4): [D 15] -- "Insurgents may be prosecuted legally as criminals for bearing arms against the government." Also, (p. 1-1): [1-4] -- "Long-term success in COIN depends on the people taking charge of their own affairs and consenting to the government's rule. Achieving this condition requires the government to eliminate as many causes of the insurgency as feasible. This can include eliminating those extremists whose beliefs prevent them from ever reconciling with the government." Hit man, anyone?

Basis of COIN operations in Iraq and Afghanistan: kill anyone opposing U.S. interests. Contrast this with the American Revolution, which was not a war of annihilation; Tories were allowed to leave or integrate into society. The new COIN FM is espousing a fascistic approach, one not in line with enlightened democratic thinking.

If this COIN manual were written in 1776, British Commanders would be authorized to kill rebels with impunity.

This was a revolutionary war utilizing unconventional tactics and guerrilla-type warfare. The colonists were guerrillas before guerrillas were cool. Luckily for us, our founding fathers today are revered as heroes and shining beacons of freedom and liberty.

When the USA was a little dog we were rebels; now that we are big dogs we spend a great deal of our national budget to kill rebels, and these rebels are not even in revolt against the U.S. Fighting rebels in our Civil War was one matter, but fighting other country's rebels seems ill-conceived.

In the past our sympathy lay with the rebels. In 1898, U.S. policy led us to war with Spain brought on by its support of Cuban rebels. In 1903 Columbian rebels were recruited and actually stole Panama from Columbia. The U.S. supported those insurgents because they benefited our policies.

In WWI, the U.S. supported the Arab insurgency versus the Ottoman empire. While it was a declared war, the Arabs were not a nation, and fought an unconventional, guerrilla war.

FM 3-24 espouses reactionary, fascist behavior, invalidating our national experience by de facto defining our Founders as insurgent criminals and betraying our roots.

In 2008 we are now the British Army, and FM 3-24 indicts our founders as "illegal combatants," or one may even say, "illegal enemy combatants" (sacrebleu!) Ask any non-lapdog Brit today.