So much to unpack here. It is great that you were able to provide this perspective.
As is often the case, boots on the ground are put in unwinnable situations. When you take a job as an armed federal agent you accept that fate.
Armed federal agents are rarely in a position to act in a humanitarian manner. They are often directed to act in a thuggish manner. It seems at least in Portland, the thuggishness is being minimized.
I think that some of the activists (the ones who are really terrorists) believe (maybe correctly) that until the Feds can be provoke into causing the American Tiananmen Massacre we will not see real change in this country.
Many people do not see armed federal agents as people. They see armed federal agents as the enforcers of the United Neo-Liberal/Conservative Plutocratic Oligarchic Elites. Defenders of the Status Quo, The sword of the Powers that Be.
We are not talking about just any job. When you take a job like Armed Federal Agent and submit to the chain of command you should understand that you are a tool of a very flawed system with a history that contains some pretty evil things.
On a different note, are we spending more to defend the courthouse than it would cost to rebuild it? Are we really defending the courthouse or defending the reputation of the Federal Systems ability to resist the terrorists?
It would seem the terrorists have already won the war (if not this battle), they forced an expensive federal response that for the most part seems unpopular and has put federal agents in position of supporting a divisive president during an election campaign. The federal agents are just political pawns.
Like I said, a lot to unpack. During the Vietnam war many who were drafted refused to go, some willingly went to jail. Some people volunteered to go to Vietnam, not acknowledging that the war was a mistake and probably evil. Volunteering to be a Armed Federal Agent is different but similar to volunteering to go to Vietnam. If you do it for patriotism or because you want to be a fighter you should probably not take the job. Those motivations are perverse.
TEK
