The United States of America sits astride the world, holding the riding crop and ordering the other nations of the world around in various ways. It sends troops to distant parts of the world. It even takes on the main "peacekeeping" (meaning: choosing a faction and suppressing the other factions) role in Yugoslavia...surely a European problem, if a problem at all.
The US is in very real danger of reaping the same sort of maelstrom that vanquished the Romans. They were also very powerful, with tentacles reaching almost to the limits of their known world, before a combination of internal decay and dissention and reprisal from those vanquished put them asunder. The government's recent emphasis on terrorism is apt since they have created so many enemies of ethnic, political, religious and social groups. Even paranoids have enemies. The internal threat is not near as great as they portray, but with increased emphasis on suppression and prosecution rather than addressing the ills, it will likely become a self-fulfilling prophesy. However, addressing the complaints of these militias is not under consideration because it would undo the very fabric of Federal jurisdictional excesses which provide the government's power base. Economics and the freedom, or lack, it entails is key. One reason our political system doesn't work is the Fed's right to tax internal economic activity as opposed to the excise taxes it was originally granted. Too much money (power) is concentrated in too few representatives who work in relative isolation (ever try and get a meeting with your rep.) for most of their term. If internal taxes could only be levied by states, who then were free to revenue share what they wished with the Feds (who would submit their requests and budgets to the states), power might be so diffused as to make nationwide lobbying too difficult and expensive and there would be a much closer adherence to local interest. We appear to be heading straight for a Whiskey Rebellion type showdown. In fact, many of the same complaints of retreat from the founding principles, which were ignored in the 1780-90s, are echoing in the writings and speeches of today's militia. In the 1790s it was wealthy and powerful eastern businessmen, mostly former Torries, who supported Hamilton and Washington against the frontiersmen. This time its the military industrial complex. This time I hope the resistance is much bettered prepared. --Steve