The United States is the third largest country with the fourth largest landmass and the second longest coastline.  We run the world's largest economy with the eighth highest GDP per capita (behind such countries as Qatar, Macao, and Singapore).  By any comparative measure — resources, natural beauty, education, innovation, freedom, opportunity — we are doing well vis-à-vis the rest of the world.  It's no wonder people line up around the block at every U.S. Embassy on Earth to try their luck at getting a chance to walk the golden streets of America.  And no wonder we have enemies who would like nothing more than to have everything we have and to take it by force if possible.

Every now and then, a story will sweep through the alt press that there are foreign troops gathered on our borders, just waiting to take us over.  It's usually China or U.N. peacekeepers, depending on the targeted audience's most scary boogeyman.  In this electronic age, it is surprising that there haven't been any videos or photos to go along with those claims.  I just usually bypass these stories and their comments and curse the panic porn purveyors in my heart.

Just a few weeks ago, a rumor was swirling around that our very own military was setting up for a similar situation: mass subjugation.  People reported seeing movements on the highways and by rail of various war machines and vehicles.  That was debunked by folks in the know explaining National Guard training movements and activities.  There's a lot of that going on now that we're past the pandemic.  But again, scares equal clicks.

Image via Pixlr's image database.

We've been watching a war a third of the world away for a year and a half.  We are observing in real time the methodology, the logistical patterns, the amassing and movement of troops across borders, and the effectiveness of our longest-term enemy.  This war is a tragedy that did not have to happen, but that is a discussion for another day.  Then we saw Russia's paralytic response to what could have been a fairly bloody coup.  Not impressive unless, of course, it was a choreography designed to get Wagner redeployed without difficult questions being asked.

China has a larger army than we do, but no effective way to get them here en masse.

I'm not afraid of a foreign invasion of this great nation.  We've got two giant moats in the Pacific and the Atlantic.  Although there are a few land routes from the north, most of Canada is impassible forest and ice.  Mexico is extremely mountainous, and, like Cuba and Venezuela, which are also close by, it does not have bases or ports large enough to afford the capability to host an invading force of even an insignificant size.

I've watched Red Dawn, both versions.  It's a dark, grim, but uplifting story of American resistance to tyrannical takeover of our county.  It's an interesting story, a gripping film, and the invasion aspect calls for a suspension of disbelief.

Three days before the Wagner charge toward Moscow, President Biden repeated his fallacy that the American people could not take down a tyrannical U.S. government without fighter jets and nukes.  He persists in his over-the-top attacks on simple Americans who trust that the Framers, when writing shall not infringe, meant exactly that.  As usual, he lied and stumbled and misquoted his way through this little speech to the well moneyed in his party.

I'm also not afraid of a military takeover of the country at the direction of the government.  There are around 340 million folks in the United States, the most recent 7 or so million thanks to Joe Biden's disastrous border policies.  Taken altogether, our active duty, reservist, and National Guard military numbers come to 2.31 million.  There are about 1 million federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officers.  Every single one of these 3.3 officially armed million have full-time jobs and families.  They would never set out to conquer their own communities.

What most convinces me that we do not face the risks of foreign invasion or traitorous subjugation is summed up in three funny memes.

Internet meme; creator unknown.

Internet meme; creator unknown.

I stay wishing a mfkr would. pic.twitter.com/4o1uu5lIOK

— MrsWalker613 (@MrsWalker613) February 16, 2023

The salient part of the above conversation:

Russia – Ah yes, the old joke, a gun behind every blade of grass.

USA – I take it you forgot that for the last 20 years I had a generation of veterans learning how an insurgency works, learning how to make IEDs, learning how to make explosively formed projectiles, and now they're all out and have no ROE when someone steps foot on their land. This demographic also possesses around 50% of all firearms worldwide.

Anony Mee is the nom de blog of a retired public servant.