Bewilderment and Concern

 

The inauguration of President Elect Joe Biden is January 20^th; three days from today.  After the events of the past two Wednesdays, security is at an unprecedented level in Washington, DC as well as at many state capitals.  The ease at which the insurrectionists broke into the US Capitol and disrupted the ceremonial affirmation of the results of the Electoral College showed how unprepared the Capitol security forces were.  Their intelligence was lacking.  Perhaps the most worrisome thing about that day was how long it took for back-up to respond. 

This leads to speculate and investigation if this were more deeply planned and possibly involved government or security personnel.  This makes us look like a tin-horn republic.

Members of Congress experienced moments of terror and fear in a place they never would have expected to be confronted with such.  The takeover exposed a vulnerability that shook them to their core.  Based on this and some actual threatening communications have made some in Congress afraid to go it public for fear of attack and even assassination.  The reaction of this past Wednesday was that the House of Representatives impeached President Trump for an unprecedented second time.

For this coming Wednesday, Inauguration Day, the reaction is that there is an unbelievable amount of security forces in Washington.  Certainly, all Federal and DC law enforcement in the capital area are mobilized.  On top of that, the National Guard of DC and surrounding states have been called into service for this week.  One report said there are more troops in DC than in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.  This is astonishing.

The troops were called up so quickly that they were not properly outfitted for the mission.  There were many photos of uniformed troops sleeping on the floor of the Capitol without blanket, pillow, or sleeping bag not to mention cots.  They appeared to be asleep in their uniforms they wore all day and would have to wear the next day.  This gives the appearance of unpreparedness.  It makes our military look, and I can’t believe I am saying this, less American and more third world.

Even more bizarre, per the New York Times on January 14:

The Pentagon was sufficiently concerned that members of the military might have taken part in the attack — or at least supported it — that the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued an unusual message to all military personnel this week, reminding them that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. would soon be their commander in chief and that they were duty bound to defend the Constitution.

Is this an overreaction?  Or are we closer to civil war or losing our democracy than most of us think?  I am at a loss to even fathom a guess.

The New York Times goes on to say:

Such preparations and precautions were necessary because the F.B.I. had picked up “an extensive amount of concerning online chatter” and was trying to discern between “aspirational” plots and actual threats, the bureau’s director, Christopher A. Wray, said in a televised briefing with Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Wray said the scores of arrests already made in last week’s riot — and the fact that agents have so far identified about 200 suspects altogether — should “serve as a very stern warning to anyone else who might be inclined” to return to Washington to commit more violence.

Talk about appearances?  This shakes our credibility with our allies and makes us look weak and vulnerable to our enemies.  When I have written about the end of the American Century, I thought it would be more China becoming the largest economy in the world and that we would have to get used to being number two in terms of GDP and global influence.  I never thought we could possibly ever get to what we are experiencing now.

It would be convenient to blame Trump. In my view, he certainly blames part of the guilt.  But there is so much anger and unhappiness on both sides of chasm that tells me, he as much a consequence of a deep long-standing malaise than a perpetrator of all this.   And I am not letting him off of the hook for what happened on January 6 by any means.

I hope that the inauguration goes smoothly and without incident.  I hope President Biden fulfills his promise to be President of all the people takes a more centrist and unifying approach to… everything.