A Grey Horizon

Two pieces published in the last twenty-four hours call for the government to make war on a subset of the American people. The first is by a CIA officer who also served with the Army in Afghanistan.

The second is by "an investigative journalist" in New York. It's not clear what exactly he's investigating here.

Despite the differences, Grant and Biden share more similarities than most might assume. One was a grizzled war hero, who’d crushed the most treasonous movement the country had ever seen. The other is a seasoned politician, known for moderation and political tact.

Which of those were meant to be similarities? And "tact"? That's what Joe Biden is known for, his tact?

I worry that these people actually believe they are facing an "insurgency" that would merit a severe response. They aren't, at all. The 'Stop the Steal' rally created the events in Congress only because the security forces -- who are already more than adequate to stop such a thing if properly employed -- didn't take any of the obvious steps necessary to contest tens of thousands of angry demonstrators. It also took months to arrange, and can't be repeated without a similar public process of organizing that would give security people plenty of time to respond. We already have more than enough force deployed, we just need people to pay attention and do their jobs. 

Meanwhile, the threat to the American way is much greater from this impulse to wage war on Americans than from the relatively few crazies out there. Demanding loyalty oaths from every fire fighter in America (as the CIA officer recommends) is crazy. Those guys wear American flag patches on their uniforms because they're already patriots. They picked that line of work to do good things for Americans. Many of them are volunteers, who risk their lives to help their fellow Americans at any hour of the day and without pay. Treating them as suspect is poisonous to our whole culture.