Weekend Play-Pretend Warriors in Nevada
Cliven Bundy's stand against the United States government has often been described as the equivalent of the Whiskey Rebellion. We can find this comparison all over the Web.
Bundy has described himself as "just like Rosa Parks." No, he isn't. Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. She did not pull a gun on the driver. Bundy has let himself be surrounded by armed guards. He is just like Huey P. Newton, not Rosa Parks.
There were very different philosophies behind these two rebellions. The Whiskey Rebellion was run by people who thought they could use the force of arms to resist a federal tax. The civil rights movement was based on nonviolent resistance. It presented an articulate defense of the right of peaceful resistance in terms of fixed moral law.
From a public relations standpoint, the civil rights movement was the most effective resistance movement in the history of the United States. The federal government, led by John F. Kennedy and then by Lyndon Johnson, desperately wanted to avoid public confrontations in the South. But the protesters would not go away, and the civil authorities in the South, who had way too much power, thought they could use billy clubs, fire hoses, and German shepherds to keep protesters at bay. Movies of these beatings got onto the evening news in 1963, and for the next seven years, Southern law enforcement officials were regarded by the public above the Mason-Dixon line and west of Ft. Worth as men who had overstepped their constitutional authority to use violence against nonviolent citizens.
With this as background, let us consider the tactics of Bundy's defenders in Clark County, Nevada.
COWBOYS VS. THE BLM
When it looked as though the Bureau of Land Management would continue to shoot his cattle, a group of cattlemen assembled at Bundy's property, and they were armed. The BLM eventually backed down. I doubt seriously that this retreat on the part of BLM bureaucrats is a permanent condition. Bureaucrats do not like to be faced down by private citizens. It makes it look as though the bureaucrats who run the organization are a bunch of cowardly, pitiable girlie men, to quote a former governor of California. They will seek revenge. They possess the initiative.
What backed down the BLM was clear: public relations. The videos were all over YouTube. This was not part of any systematic public relations program on the part of the cowboys who showed up to defend Bundy. These men are not disciples of Saul Alinsky. They just wanted to present show of force.
The following article reveals what is going on in Clark County.
BLM officers have largely retreated and Bundy -- who has refused to pay the federal government grazing fees for roughly 20 years -- has recovered many of his seized cattle. Nevertheless, supporters of the rancher remain outside his property in large numbers equipped with heavy firearms in the event that another standoff emerges and they have to be the last line of defense for the Bundy family in case of further federal encroachment.
They have positioned themselves as armed separatists. From the looks of it, most of the people in Clark County think they are beyond the fringe. The Congressman from the county is now publicly saying that the governor should intervene and arrest these men. I don't think he would do this in an election year if he thought that a majority of the voters in his district were strongly in favor of Bundy and the cowboys.
The cowboys who showed up with weapons are playing with fire. They think their guns have scared the U.S. government. They have not understood that their cell phones have scared off the BLM. The success of the videos on YouTube, coupled with non-mainstream media reminders of Waco, persuaded the BLM to retreat for a time. We can be reasonably certain that the bureaucrats are thinking through what their long-term plan should be.
At any time, a federal marshal and a couple of hundred armed deputies can go to Bundy's house and arrest him. If there is any threat of armed resistance by the cowboys, the marshal can simply say: "Lay down your guns." At that point, the cowboys will face their moment of truth. They can risk getting shot, or else they can risk being surrounded for the next week or month.
They can be starved out. No one gets in. No one gets out. This is simple for people of normal intelligence to understand, but the cowboys do not understand it.
There will be photographs taken by one of the federal officers. The cowboys will be identified within a matter of minutes through facial recognition technology. At that point, teams of federal marshals and deputized officials, armed to the teeth, can be dispatched to the homes of these cowboys. At any time, there can be a warrant-authorized invasion of these homes, once there is evidence of an armed standoff. The justification for this invasion: a search for additional weapons. All weapons will be confiscated. The federal government will take control of these homes.
Meanwhile, the cowboys surrounding Bundy's ranch are going to get hungry. For political reasons, the federal marshal may not shoot them. But someone will make videos of the fact that they refuse to lay down their arms.
If any hothead raises his weapon and attempts to fire on federal officers, he will be dead within a matter of seconds. Others close to him may be killed. It depends on how well the officials can shoot and how close the others are to the hothead.
Then the marshal will say, once again, "Lay down your guns." Most of the cowboys will lay down their guns. Those cowboys who do not lay down their guns will then have their lives dependent on the assessment of the marshal regarding the public relations nature of any further shootings.
This is simple to predict: tear gas. I don't think these cowboys have ever faced tear gas. They will scatter.
If another hothead takes a shot, he will be cut down. The best that the others can hope for is that they will not be shot by mistake.
Then will come the arrests. Then will come the $200 per hour bills from their defense attorneys. They will be forced to sell their ranches. If the government wants to drain them, one by one, each man will be tried separately. There will be no joint trial, where a non-profit conservative legal defense fund picks up the joint tab.
They will be convicted by juries of their peers, one by one. Americans do not tolerate private citizens firing on law-enforcement officials. The first time some hothead aims his weapon at a marshal, the entire group will move from underdogs to revolutionaries.
The government will take plenty of videos next time. The arrests will be staged accordingly. Call this the YouTube Wars, stage two. The cowboys will lose this war.
HOTHEADS
The cowboys have within their ranks a number of hotheads. Every movement that openly resorts to armed resistance will always attract hotheads. These men are the ones who are ready to put the lives of the others in jeopardy.
If the men surrounding Bundy's house were unarmed, the onus would be on the federal marshal for using violence. The issue would be settled in court. One of the courts would be the court of public opinion. But the moment that an armed group of men without authority resists a call to lay down their guns, issued by a federal marshal who is accompanied by 100 or 200 deputies, they are placing their lives on the line. They cannot possibly win in the court of public opinion, and some of them may not get out alive.
Recently, I received a letter from one of these hotheads. He wrote in response to my article on the proper way to conduct this political battle, which is on YouTube.
Love you Gary and respect you, but your way off on this one.You cant shame cowards only kill em. You have to speak the Kings English with Them. Thats what they cotton. Trust me I know them.
He lives in Idaho.
I replied: "You are a fool."
He shot back, figuratively speaking: "Beautiful Gary, Stay home and let the men take care of business. Maybe you can write about it?"
I replied: "I shall. I will watch the funerals on YouTube. Crying widows, soon re-married."
He sent me a poem.
Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
'Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside.........................
The poem was by a pacifist, James Russell Lowell, and it was a poem opposing the Mexican War. It was a poem extolling non-violoent resistance. What followed was a call to non-violence.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv'ries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
The weekend warrior wanna-be who sent me the poem, who extolls violence against armed federal agents as the correct path, apparently thinks Jesus could have solved His problems if He and the disciples had been carrying swords.
These people are a liability to the resistance movement. The federal government could swat them like flies, which is what SWAT teams are trained to do. If the government ever decides that it is worth the trouble, it can remove these people with little effort.
The federal government could easily goad them into firing first. The moment that one of these bananaheads fires a shot at armed men with badges, the initiative is transferred to the marshal.
There is something else to consider: agents provocateurs. Governments have used them for centuries to goad resistance movements into violence, where they can be dealt decisively by the state without public backlash. "Let's you and him fight."
Here is the correct resistance strategy: Camcorders, not rifles. Courts, not six-guns. Ballot boxes, not cartridge boxes. YouTube is the proper arena. A cell phone is the weapon of choice.
Cliven Bundy should thank them for showing support. He should then ask them to go home, leave their guns there, and then return, armed with cell phones and camcorders.
CONCLUSION
I was taught to shoot by Col. Jeff Cooper. We were in grad school together, in the same program: history. He understood military tactics. He did not believe in remaining in a closely knit formation when facing overwhelming superiority on the ground.
Nobody ever called Jeff Cooper a coward.
But these play-pretend warriors have not studied military tactics, guerrilla tactics, or public relations. They have not done what Jesus recommended. They have not counted the cost of their actions (Luke 14:28-30).
If one of these blowhards ever suggests to you that you take up arms against the federal government, cut off all contact with him. You are dealing with a fool who has not read the Constitution carefully.
The Congress shall have Power . . . To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Congress placed the militia under federal control in the Militia Act of 1903. It thereby turned the militia over to the United States Army. The President is in charge.
The President has not yet commented on these weekend warriors. He is not Andrew Jackson. Jackson would have ordered them taken out over a weekend. That is what being a weekend warrior is really all about: one weekend. Anything beyond that is at the President's discretion.
Imitate Gandhi, not David Koresh. Gandhi won.