On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2021, 25,000 National Guard soldiers will be assembled in Washington D.C., ostensibly to protect our nation’s capitol from rioters and insurrectionists. Various federal agencies requested the Guard, and governors from across the United States complied with that request. Hundreds more federal and local law officials will also stand watch in the streets and buildings. Enormous walls of wire and concrete now surround the Capitol building.

Meanwhile, citing the dangers of the coronavirus, the incoming administration has decided to hold the inauguration virtually. There will be no open-air ceremony attended by thousands of supporters.

Let’s step back and examine this scenario. Our capitol now boasts two divisions of soldiers to prevent rioting or protests. The soldiers and police, we assume, have the ability to stop any passer-by and request identification. Ugly barricades designed to keep out armed intruders now speak volumes about the state of our nation.

Were we outsiders looking at these measures in a rational way, we might deduce that the United States is now in a state of civil war. Perhaps we might conclude that this nation’s leaders live in fear of the very citizens they purport to govern. Some might surmise that this show of force is a warning, a shot across the bow implying the government now has the guns and the willpower to crush its citizens if it so chooses.

Whatever the case, this massive gathering of troops and police puts our nation to shame. The rest of the world must look on us with either amazement or disgust.

This military occupation of Washington D.C. also raises some questions.

When some in the previous administration advocated putting National Guard troops on our border to prevent what amounts to an invasion of our country, why did so many on the left resist that measure?

When rioters were burning and looting our cities all summer long, and some wished to send the Guard to put a stop to those thugs and vandals, why did some governors refuse to use the military to quell these riots?

How long will the National Guard remain in Washington? What exactly is their mission statement? All military units have mission statements, but do we know what our leaders intend to do with this force once Inauguration Day has passed?

The swell of troops to our nation’s capitol is a disconcerting sight. Is this show of force based on real information and apprehension about an armed mob entering the city? Or is it intended to go hand-in-hand with the recent attacks on some members of our Congress and Big Tech’s silencing of thousands of Americans, including a presiding president, to drive home the point that the government now in charge will brook no nonsense about such freedoms as those of speech and assembly? Do we still live in a republic or are we now in a dictatorship?

On Monday evening, Jan. 18, Tucker Carlson rightly railed against this massive turnout of soldiers and the dangerous suggestions of a Congressman and a retired colonel, with the latter advocating for the military to put down domestic terrorists. In this case he apparently meant those who voted for Donald Trump. You can watch this video and read Andrea Widburg’s accompanying article here.

Near the end of this article, Widburg writes:

What’s even more disturbing about the military presence is that, as Tucker points out, it appears that the Pentagon has thrown its weight entirely to the Democrat party. Certainly, it is following the ludicrous ‘insurrection’ narrative. We see clearly that the one institution in America that was entirely non-partisan, at least at the upper levels, has become just another part of the Deep State. It seems that Obama succeeded in changing management in the Pentagon.

I am writing these words the day before the inauguration. With the possible exception of Antifa and other leftist radicals, I’ve heard nothing of an armed militia descending on Washington D.C.

What I have heard since November’s election, and since the riot in the Capitol building earlier this month, are smears from the mainstream media, and many of our technocrats and politicians. They have savaged people like Trump and others, accusing them of advocating revolution. They have in turn savaged the rest of us who oppose fraudulent elections and the storm of restrictive measures coming from the newly elected administration.