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In reply to the discussion: Scalia Suggests Women Have No Right to Contraception [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)"We should very carefully note, however, that private corporations do possess such weaponry. The 'privatization' of far too much of government military power has resulted in a recent increase in the extent to which such WMD are in private (corporate or conglomerated) hands. Thus, it makes sense to have limits on the power of weaponry covered by the 2nd Amendment ... i.e. nukes, howitzers, bombers with payloads, and fully automatic rifles and pistols. It does NOT, however, make sense to fail to have a Universal National Service policy that engages every adult between the ages of 18 and 65 in a "well-regulated militia." (The Swiss model is but one example.) "
I have been reading the book, A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchmann. It was written in the late 1970s, and it describes life in the 14th century. Chivalry was in its death throes. Men who thought themselves to be aristocratic and therefore entitled to parasitic lives paraded around dressed as knights, pretending that war -- killing and maiming and destroying -- over titles and land was a noble occupation.
Tuchmann describes the "companies," marauding groups of mercenaries, armed to the hilt (for the time) who, during the 14th century, sought to enrich themselves by killing and stealing from defenseless communities as they swept through Europe, especially France.
When not hired for war, they just terrorized the countryside.
Tuchmann describes at least two instances in which the French started foreign wars in part in order to draw these mercenaries away from France. That is how desperate the French were to enjoy their peace without these gangs.
The mercenaries of today are international and even more dangerous. And what is to stop them from being, for a price, turned back on us. What national loyalties do they owe to anyone really? Once you kill for the money, what is to prevent you from turning and killing your own compatriots?
It's a fascinating book, but very long -- 600 pages. Wow! Though. What a great read!