I was reading the Constitution of the United States of America and our Declaration of Independence over the July 4th holiday. I noticed that the founding fathers of the US seemed to feel very strongly against the permenant establishment of large standing armies that served the executive authority.
For example, it was written that the King of England...
Also it was written that the King was accused of:".... has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. "
Do Skadi readers feel that standing armies are a threat to freedom and the citizens as servants of the governments (for instance, the American president is "the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy")?"...Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.."
Do Skadi readers feel (as did America's founders) that the Army and Navy should be counter balanced by a numerically superior "citizen's militia" made up of freemen and women?
"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."
-- Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789
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