Of Trump signal US domestic terrorism rise?
Security dollars per capita than Twin-Towerless New York. Welcome to federalism.
Oklahoma felt strange then, remote.
Bin Laden was the threat; the War on Terror the response; Afghanistan and Iraq the theatres.
A decade earlier, however, Oklahoma City was the epicentre of domestic terrorism after the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh, which killed 168, including 27 children.
We went to the Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum, both beautiful symbols of loss and healing.
Oklahomans’ mantra was ‘‘Hope through Courage’’. It moved me so much so I took my wife back there during a southern road trip in 2016.
McVeigh was a decorated
Gulf War veteran who turned against his government. He remained unrepentant until a lethal injection did for him.
Writing to Gore Vidal, McVeigh cited American jurist Supreme Court Justice Brandeis: ‘‘Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example’’.
McVeigh saw moral equivalence in his actions in Oklahoma and those his government took against its own people (at Waco) or against faraway peoples (civilian bombing deaths in Iraq).
The Brandeis quote stayed with me after what’s become known as 1/6, the day of the Capitol insurrection, and the Senate acquittal.
What did ‘‘the whole people’’ learn from its government?
To help answer that, I’ve also absorbed since the election the full spectrum of US media (Infowars to MSNBC).
My sense is that 1/6 was a teaching moment but a divided public took sharply different lessons from their equally divided government.
For most Americans, 1/6 was a day of infamy: when a defeated, outgoing leader of the executive branch of government incited an insurrection against a co-equal branch.
For these Americans, Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal reveals a partisan government incapable of delivering justice, along with much else.
For other Americans, a large minority, 1/6 represents a defeat, one which they barely accept, if at all.
It’s Biden’s government, not theirs. Impeachment was unconstitutional. They’ve shifted, like Mitch McConnell, to 2022, and revenge.
For a small hardcore of Americans, 1/6 was a heroic, historic victory.
They saw patriots crossing the Mall, like Washington crossing the Delaware, fighting tyranny. Stopping the steal.
This group will concern Homeland Security and the FBI who will now refocus their resources on the domestic terrorism threat.
They need to.
After the Oklahoma bombing, an estimated 200+ militia groups grew to more than 800. These were the organised wings of some four million self-styled anti-government ‘‘Patriots’’.
Who could guess, right now, what 1/6 will do to swell their ranks, already turbo-charged after four years of Trump and allies scratching every antigovernment itch.
The historical symbolism of the 1/6 insurrection is, alas, totemic in a line that can be traced from the Shays Rebellion (1786-87) through the Whiskey Rebellion (1794), Harpers Ferry (1859), to the Oklahoma bombing.
President George Washington’s response to insurrection was classiest, riding at the front of his army to confront them – and 500 insurrectionists dispersed before he arrived. Contrast that with Trump enjoying 1/6 on the telly. Says everything.
The risk posed by organised militia, motivated by this raw new history and with new martyrs to celebrate, is amplified by veterans joining militia.
Today’s veteran, unlike McVeigh, has done multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some up to a dozen.
How do they view moral equivalency after all they’ve seen and done? How more lethal are they?
Some serving police and military personnel’s politisation, even radicalisation, under Trump also presents a fraught situation for Pentagon and police chiefs. If their oath isn’t guaranteed, they are potential trouble while in or outside the military.
The teaching moment for me feels like it has passed. People hear what they want to hear. Memories fade. New outrages replace old ones. Another crisis will hit.
The Capitol insurrection showed the centre’s vulnerability.
But the continent’s massive expanse is where the risk is greater. Sixteen years on, I’m thinking that Oklahoma’s Homeland Security dosh wasn’t wasted after all.
Jon Johansson is a former NZ First staffer and a 30-year student of American politics. He published
in 2014 (NY:
After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex walked away last year from their lives as ‘‘working royals’’ in Britain, Buckingham Palace agreed to a 12-month review to see if some compromise could be struck, whereby the couple would continue to represent the Queen as part-timers – half Hollywood, half pomp and circumstance.
Alas, the monarch has never liked the concept of ‘‘one foot in, one foot out’’ for working royals. You are either in ‘‘The Firm’’, as it is casually known, or you are on your own.
The palace announced yesterday that Prince Harry and wife Meghan will lose their last royal patronages and honorary military titles, as the Queen confirmed that the California-based power couple could not keep the perks if they did not do the work.
‘‘Following conversations with the duke, the Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of the royal family, it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service,’’ the palace said in a statement.
‘‘The Queen made pretty clear last January, when they were negotiating, that you’re either in or you’re out,’’ said Dickie Arbiter, the monarch’s former press secretary.
The past year, he said, was about the duke and duchess ‘‘finding out what direction they want to go, and they have chosen that direction’’.
‘‘They signed with Netflix. They signed with Spotify. They are doing an interview with Oprah Winfrey. They’ve chosen their direction, and it’s not the same direction as the Queen and the monarchy. So they are out.’’
The palace said the withdrawal of patronages was something that had to be done in accordance with tradition, but stressed that there were no hard feelings.
‘‘While all are saddened by their decision’’ not to come home and return to royal duties, the Sussexes ‘‘remain much-loved members of the family,’’ the palace said.
The honorary military appointments and royal patronages held by Harry and Meghan will be returned to the Queen, before being redistributed among working members of the royal family.
This is a blow to Harry. His life has been very much intertwined with his military service – he did two tours in Afghanistan as a forward air controller and a helicopter pilot – and his support of British sporting life.
The prince will no longer serve as captain general of the Royal Marines, a role passed to him from his grandfather, Prince Philip, who had held the post for 64 years.
Philip, 99, yesterday spent his third night in a hospital under observation after feeling poorly. British media reported that he would probably remain in hospital into next week.
Gone, too, is Harry’s post as ‘‘commodore-in-chief, small ships and diving’’ in the Royal Navy.
British tabloid The Sun reported that Harry will no longer be able to wear a military uniform at official events.
The duchess will also surrender her patronage of the National Theatre, bestowed to her by the Queen, who had held the honour for 45 years. She will keep her private patronages with Smart Works, which offers coaching to unemployed women, and Mayhew, an animal charity.
Harry will also retain a number of private patronages, including with Invictus Games, the sporting competition for wounded service personnel that he founded.
In all, the Sussexes are saying goodbye to formal relations with the Royal Marines, the Royal Air Force Honington base, Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving, the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, the Rugby Football Union, the Rugby Football League, the Royal National Theatre, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
A spokesperson for the couple said: ‘‘As evidenced by their work over the past year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain committed to their duty and service to the [United Kingdom] and around the world, and have offered their continued support to the organisations they have represented regardless of official role.
‘‘We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.’’