An increased economic crisis in the US may lead to civil unrest and the need to call on the army to intervene, a US Army War College warns. "Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," writes retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, a 20-year Army veteran and visiting professor at the US Army War College.
Freir notes that his 44-page report, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development," is solely a reflection. But he argues that "unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters," could be the potential aftermath of a sclerotic economy.
The announcement by the US defense department to assign a full-time army unit to be on-call for domestic deployment could prove all by itself that the officials are not indifferent towards such predictions.
Charles Boehmer, political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, was skeptical about the Army War College report.
"The military was not called out during the Great Depression, and I don't think our economic problems are as bad as they were then," he said. "The military always has contingency plans. It's a think tank's job to come up with scenarios, but that doesn't mean it represents an active interest on the part of the (Pentagon)."
While according to the report, the first eight months of President-elect Barack Obama's Administration could translate into a "strategic shock", Obama has proposed a stimulus plan that may cost between $675 billion and 775 billion dollars.
A recent prediction by former KGB analyst and Russian academic Igor Panarin points out that the US will be engulfed in a civil war which will eventually lead to the fall of the country.
Panarin believes that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war in the United States as early as the autumn of 2009.
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