From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Feb 10 1999 - 18:32:11 MST
Paul Hughes wrote:
>
> Accoring to the ex-officers I know, the military would love for Clinton to
> issue such an order, because it would finally give them the control they
> have long sought. Once they establish a military coup, they'll probably
> tell Clinton and the rest of the civilian government to go f__k themselves.
In that case, yes, you're paranoid. First, who's "they"? Who's "the
military"? The officers? The generals and admirals? The privates?
High-level bureaucrats in the DoD? Second, "the military" is not a
political force in this country. The Department of Defense has so
little clout, in a nation where budgets are determined by nothing else,
that the army is deteriorating.
This isn't a banana republic. Nobody has to keep the military happy.
They don't have any Senators in their pocket. Nobody in the military
structure has any political clout; thus, the kind of people who are
looking for power become politicians, not generals. The various
elements in the military don't have a cohesive interest group strong
enough to have its own agenda.
"The military" hasn't "long sought" _anything_. It simply isn't a power
bloc; it doesn't have the power, and it isn't a bloc.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
http://pobox.com/~sentience/sing_analysis.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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