People make a lot of noise about the Second Amendment, but, what, they gonna shoot down a predator drone with their semi-auto AR-15? They gonna stop a SWAT team from disappearing them at 3am? They gonna be able to lead a decent life if all of their bank accounts get frozen? Local police departments acquiring armored vehicles and driving around wearing tactical gear are slowly morphing into a network of sketchy paramilitary forces.
Whistleblowers, however, really are on the front-lines of protecting us from actual, meaningful government corruption, overreach, and misconduct. They're what head-off 1984 before it turns into 1984.
If you have to worry about stockpiling ammunition in your basement, things have already gone way too far. Whistleblowers and the press are mechanism by which we don't get to that point.
In some civil wars it was neighbor vs neighbor. In the Lebanese civil war people were pulled out of cabs and shot. This wasn't the state you have to worry about.
How would you compare the success of guerilla war in the last few decades against larger powers?
Guerilla warfare is asymmetric warfare fought by a small minority against a more powerful enemy. It typically emerges in situations like Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan where you have a large, technologically advanced invading force that you are resisting. In the United States, there is very low risk of an exogenous actor occupying US soil, so we don't really have to worry about that.
Rather, we have to worry about our own government, and our best option is to take full advantage of our democratic system to head tyranny off at the pass.
Lebanon was a Civil War in the context of a failed state. The state no longer had a monopoly on the use of violence. A more recent analogy you could draw that would be more apropos would perhaps be Mexico where large swathes of the country are outside of state control, and rather in the hands of transnational criminal organizations.
I would again, argue that we should worry about preventing our country from becoming a failed state. The effort of preparing for the worst case scenario could perhaps be better spent through political engagement and activism to ensure that our country does not reach the point of being a failed state.
As you see right now, the current presidential administration is in the process of attempting a coup. It is not the lone citizen with an AR-15 that has prevented it. It is our institutions. What stands between the current administration staying in office for the next four years in full defiance of the voters as they would very much like to do? It's our institutions, including the whistleblowers, the free press, the judiciary, congress, state legislatures, and a military with a good head on its shoulders.
In fact, I have hundreds of rounds of 7.62x39 in my garage and a few thousand of 9mm. But, I have it because it's cheap in bulk, not because I have any aspirations to shoot another human being in any conceivable scenario. I believe in the strong institutions of my country, rather than my ability to murder my fellow Americans.
I bear no ill will, however, towards those who choose to 'trust in Allah, but tie up your camel.' I only ask that they consider giving their time to mending the patchwork of our society rather than simply preparing for when it rips.
