In the United States, the revival of militia is important to survival of the Republic

[PROGENY]

One must first understand what the creators of the U.S. Constitution had in mind for the new Republic they had created. They allowed for a standing national army, but insisted that it be kept small, and although it might be the first force to be called out, and the only force to be sent abroad, the primary defense of the country was to be the duty of ordinary citizens, who would be kept in a state of military readiness while leading their normal lives, and who would be called up to repel invasions, suppress insurrections, or execute the laws, for limited periods of time.

A man named George Mason provided the best definition, in my opinion. It only needs to be broken out into various classes, representing the order in which people would be called out for military service.

Hierarchy of classes:

1. National Army:
Full-time: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard.
Part-time: Reserves, National Guard.

2. State and Local Select Militia: These are not general militias. They are paid and equipped by the State or by local governments.
Full-time: State and local law enforcement officers.
Part-time: State Guard.

3. Obligatory Militia: Able-bodied male citizens of a certain age range, who are required to be kept organized and trained, but at their own expense. Age range is 18-44 for federal purposes, but states may establish other age ranges.

4. Volunteer Militia: Citizens not part of obligatory militia who voluntarily participate in activities of the obligatory militia, again at their own expense.

5. Ready Militia: The combination of (3) and (4) above, who would be called up after the armed forces and the regular militia, but who are also those likely to be first on the scene in emergency situations. It is not a "select"" militia.

6. Reserve Militia: All other citizens, including children, the elderly, the less-able, and women, and perhaps foreign visitors as well, who might be called up after the ready militia, if needed.

[PROGENY]

Also, militia units should be organized at the local level, by going house by house, covering entire neighborhoods, towns, and counties. This will be easier to do in rural areas, where people are already more receptive to the patriotic message. In urban areas, it may work better to start by organizing neighborhood associations, then educating the members gradually until it can be converted into a self-conscious militia unit.

Coordination among local units should be done using committees. These committees do not attempt to act as regional, state, or national organizations, but only to be used to facilitate communication among local units, and the building of a consensus for action.

[PROGENY]

There are those tha discourage the formation of armed groups, including independent constitutional militias. They don't want the militia to become organized. Besides legal and illegal harassment, the militia must prepare participants to deal with attempts to infiltrate militia units. This can take three forms:

1. Moles: Agents who pretend to be trustworthy but who are mainly focused on obtaining information about militia members and their activities.


2. Provocateurs: Agents who pretend to be responsible members, then, when least expected, do something which seeks to discredit the militia and perhaps provoke official action against it.


3. Dissipators: Agents who pretend commitment until they can assume positions of influence within the group, then use it to divert them into ineffective or unproductive activities, such as endless debate, socializing, and divisive disputes, or to reduce morale and resolve.

The above are traitors, and should be dealt with accordingly.

The best protection against infiltration is to teach members to be vigilant to it and to have a large number of small units and many leaders. There should be little or no leadership on the state or national level, other than a network of correspondence committees.

It is also important to try to establish good relations with local and state officials, to the extent possible. Work with them to help them solve the problems of the community, and encourage them to ask the militia to assist them. Resistance from such officials should be countered by seeking the support for better ones to get elected or appointed.

[PROGENY]

Militias are not state or national, but the militia, like citizenship, is fundamentally local. We are first and foremost citizens of our local community. Although people may also be citizens of larger political entities, such as states or the nation, and although those entities may be considered to be composed of their citizens, they are essentially composed of localities.

Just as militias are essentially local, so also are they essentially independent of established authorities, since the militia may have to challenge or bypass those authorities if they abuse their authority or fail to perform their lawful duties.

Remember, militias are local and independent.

The legal basis for assemblies of militias are two natural rights: the right to assemble and the right to keep and bear arms. Combined, they are the right to assemble bearing arms. Our Forefathers considered it obvious that rights which could be exercised separately could be exercised in combination, and would have thought present attempts to outlaw independent assemblies of militia units as absurd. The term "well-regulated" did not mean "regulated by some official". It meant "well-trained and disciplined". A militia can and should be self-regulated.

[jimb]

It has not been a picnic being in the military for many soldiers of the USA. Overused, overworked, and leaders who see not ends to the venture.

There are a togetherness of people of the services even among hard roads to travel.

[PROGENY]

One of the most important subjects for action by local militia units is investigation of fraud and other kinds of official corruption, like election fraud. It will do little good to try to elect better officials if elections are rigged, and if they are, the militia may become the only way for citizens to secure their rights. If such fraud is found, it will also help to build public support for further militia action and for greater participation.

Another important subject for action will be to establish an alert system for warning of abuses of citizens by organs of the government, and mobilizing to defend them. It must be emphasized that it is not enough for citizens to defend their rights in isolation. Only if they band together can their rights be protected.

Education in constitutional law must also be a priority. Every citizen must be trained to interpret the constitutionality of laws and official acts, and taught that doing so is the responsibility of each individual. Special attention needs to be given to educating lawyers, judges, officials, and college and high school students. Militia members need to make sure that every public library contains suitable books and magazines that provide education on these subjects.

Every citizen must be informed of their right and duty.

[Bman]

Indeed... Moqtada al Sadr would agree with you Progeny

Perhaps the NRA will open a chapter in Baghdad, soon


Los Angeles Times

January 12, 2007 Friday
Home Edition

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: RAID CRITICIZED; WEAPONS IN BAGHDAD;
Some in Iraq plan to take up arms, not lay them down;

Militias are their best protection, they say, and Bush's new plan is a recipe for disaster.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD



Hours after President Bush announced his latest plan to shore up Iraq's beleaguered government, some Iraqis were hoarding weapons, prepared to fight additional U.S. troops alongside the militias they say protect them.

Among the militiamen in the capital on Thursday was a man who asked to be identified as Abu Karrar. Affiliated with the Al Mahdi militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, Abu Karrar refuses to lay down his weapons until militia leaders give the word.

"This can be done only when there will be some guarantees, and only when security has improved," he said.

Abu Zahraa, 35, a Shiite who works as a building foreman in Baghdad, said he was not ready to trust the government, divided as it was into powerful Sunni Arab and Shiite factions.

"If the situation would remain like this, then we will never give up our weapons, because we are skeptical that there is a ... side that is able to provide us with security," he said.

Sheik Abdul Razzaq Naddawi, an aide to Sadr, said Al Mahdi members, particularly those in the sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City, had been forced to arm themselves for protection against Al Qaeda in Iraq members and other fighters.

"The Sadr City residents say that they are targeted by Al Qaeda and the like, who have announced that they are launching a war against the Shiites," Naddawi said.

He said militiamen continued to carry weapons. "If these groups are attacked, they will defend themselves," he said.

The remarks from Sadr's camp and street-level sympathizers contradicted a renewed promise Thursday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government to disarm the militias and ban them from the streets.

Iraqi government officials approached Sadr this year and asked him to disarm his militia, but he asked for guarantees that Shiites in Sadr City would be protected, Naddawi said. Then a series of coordinated car bombs rocked Sadr City on Nov. 23, killing at least 215 people. Any chance of a cease-fire evaporated with the bombings.

"Things reached a level that one could not keep silent against," Naddawi said. "The situation exploded."

Even those who oppose the militias said Bush's plan would not work.

Khalid Furajee, 31, a Sunni grocery store owner, said he lived in fear of Shiite militias, and added that U.S. troops would only anger them.

"We don't want them to increase the number of the American troops; we want the contrary," he said. "When the Americans leave, tranquillity and friendship between Sunni and Shiite will return."

Haydar Hasoon, 36, a Shiite bus driver, said Iraqi security forces, not U.S. troops, should take control of the country's borders to stop foreign fighters from entering to reinforce the militias and the insurgency.

"They are outsiders coming from Iran and Syria," he said of the militias. "I doubt the new [strategy] will succeed. There were many attempts in the past where large numbers of forces were deployed, checkpoints established, and look at the situation now -- it's getting worse. Unidentified bodies are being discovered, not to mention false checkpoints everywhere to kidnap or kill people."

Critics have accused Maliki, a Shiite, of protecting Sadr and his militia in exchange for political support. Bush's plan will require Maliki to take a different approach and allow U.S. troops to secure Sadr City and other militia strongholds.

Many people think Maliki, who began his four-year term in May and has said he will not seek reelection, does not have the courage to stand up to Sadr and his army.

"The new strategy that Bush has worked on will serve America's interests alone. It will not serve the interests of the Iraqi people," said Mohammed Diani, a Sunni member of parliament who called Maliki "weak" and unable to confront Shiite militias.

"In coming days, Iraq will witness great chaos," Diani said, warning that "many Americans will be killed, and those who are coming will also be killed."

A spokesman for Maliki said the government would crack down on militias and U.S. troops would follow the lead of the Iraqi army. But many argue that the Iraqi army has become disproportionately Shiite since the purging of Sunni officers loyal to former leader Saddam Hussein.

Bush's plan unifies Iraqi security forces under one commander and pairs them with some of the 21,500 planned U.S. troops. Together they will patrol beleaguered neighborhoods in the capital.

"The new vision now for the troops is more coordination -- more coordination for the safety of the Iraqis and the international troops," Maliki spokesman Ali Dabbagh said at a news conference in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Some Iraqis said Bush's plan sounded less like a timetable for disarming militias and more like a timetable for U.S. withdrawal that was designed to reassure a troubled American public that its military hadn't failed.

"I think the militias are now stronger than the government," said Ammar Fadhil, 32, a Shiite business owner who hoped Maliki would respond to U.S. pressure and develop the "political will" to stand up to the militias.

"Ending militias would in the end benefit all Iraqis," he said. "Because a state with militias is not considered a real state."

He called Bush's speech "a light of hope" but said he had no illusions that progress would be rapid, even with $1 billion in new reconstruction money that Bush pledged to help undercut the insurgency in impoverished areas such as Sadr City.

"A billion dollars will not solve the unemployment or the deteriorated services," Fadhil said. "However, the citizens are sensing that there is seriousness regarding America's policy and reputation."

Bush also wants to better integrate into the government former members of Hussein's Baath Party. Haider Abadi, a leader of Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party, said a new law was in the works that would reduce the number of Baathists excluded from government jobs and pensions to 2,000 from 30,000.

But critics said Bush's proposal, which also calls for a plan to share oil revenue, could not will away a litany of long-standing disagreements. The sectarian divide, they cautioned, cannot be solved on the battlefield.

"Forces alone cannot solve it," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker. "There should be political agreement and reconciliation.... The only way to make an improvement is willingly between Iraqi political and religious leaders."

Talks on militias, oil revenue and de-Baathification have yielded few results, he said.

"We have to be frank about it: The Iraqi government has not been able to deliver on these issues," Othman said.

But this time, Abadi said, the stakes are much higher for Maliki and the rest of Iraq's leaders.

"This represents the last chance for salvation," Abadi said. "If this plan fails, everyone will fail, and the temple will collapse on our heads."

molly.hennessy-fiske

@latimes.com

Times staff writer Saif Hameed and a special correspondent in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Atlas]

Militias...yeah, let's get right on that

http://bsalert.com/f-store/tinfoil.jpg

[Flying_Monkey]

All the people I met in the chemung county militia are idiots.
They tried getting me to join, told them to blow me.

[death2aq]

Those militias in the middle east are a prime example of what happens when a militia becomes corrupt.

[death2aq]

Militias...yeah, let's get right on that

http://bsalert.com/f-store/tinfoil.jpg

Yea, after all being paranoid is a waste of time. It's not like anyone is going to fly planes into our buildings or something. :add09:

[Atlas]

Yea, after all being paranoid is a waste of time. It's not like anyone is going to fly planes into our buildings or something. :add09:

Are you going to start an air militia? Just exactly would you have stopped a plane, oh snarky one?

[death2aq]

Are you going to start an air militia? Just exactly would you have stopped a plane, oh snarky one?

Making fun of people to try and stop them from doing anything, is wrong. In fact it's down right oppressive and disgusting.

[NFM]

Well this was an interesting thread...

[Atlas]

Making fun of people to try and stop them from doing anything, is wrong. In fact it's down right oppressive and disgusting.

The appearance of doing something is not an acceptable substitute for actually doing something.

You want to help? Join a fire company, learn EMT skills. Join the military or national guards. Become a reserve deputy or policeman

This unorganized militia thing is a waste of productive energy. An unorganized militia isn't getting anywhere NEAR a shooting war, if one starts. Or even a terrorist event. How many militias were deployed during 9/11...in Manhattan? In DC...even in Rural PA. thats right...zero

[Atlas]

Quiet in here all of a sudden

http://www.knutsonlivebait.com/images/crickets.jpg

[keith]

The appearance of doing something is not an acceptable substitute for actually doing something.

You want to help? Join a fire company, learn EMT skills. Join the military or national guards. Become a reserve deputy or policeman

This unorganized militia thing is a waste of productive energy. An unorganized militia isn't getting anywhere NEAR a shooting war, if one starts. Or even a terrorist event. How many militias were deployed during 9/11...in Manhattan? In DC...even in Rural PA. thats right...zero

I agree. An unorganized militia is much of a guerillia force, suitable if we are overun by an occupier. For our purposes, it's not really applicable.