... into 50 something fractions.
That is, give each state a military (militia?) of it's own, under the leadership of the Governor of each state.
Think about it: Every state already has a base of it's own.
Some states naturally will be better suited for some kinds of services (coastal states are bound to have Naval bases and Marines). The states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, may have superior air power.
One thing is for certain: it would be extremely tough to go to war.
(Which is a good thing.)
States would actually have to think long about whether such and such foreign leader in power is a "threat" to "security" -- long before a troop is deployed for a tour ... before a fire is shot.
State senates, state congresses, and state houses would have to determine whether it makes sense to deploy X battalion and Y Squadron overseas.
I almost said "national security" -- but there would be no national security. Rather, they'd have to figure out if so-and-so leader (an Assad, a Putin, a Saddam) was a threat to "state security."
State governments would have to debate military budgets.
The Pentagon would be no more...
... but all of the Pentagon's secrets and joint secrets with other agencies (such as the CIA) should be released to the public before it shutters its door, and made publicly available on a website (Wikileaks can't do everything).
The police and the military would be separate. The military, by law, should be prohibited from giving military equipment to the police before, during, or after the decentralization of the national military force. This prevents the militarization of the police.
In the meantime, the military equipment that the police departments currently own should be taken away, in a separate process.
As for overseas bases, close them down permanently.
What about Guantanamo Naval Base? Shut it down, too. We don't even own Cuba but we have a military base there.
I actually thought of this a while ago -- but this week I saw a headline that reminded me of my own idea. So ... I'm posting this now to at least be one of the earliest voices (this is, of course, without doing any research to see if the idea has been put out there before).
I could be very late myself.
UPDATE: I found the piece I referred to above, which was published six days ago. I haven't read it yet it but it is called "Decentralize the Military: Why We Need Independent Militias" by Ryan McMaken. Perhaps McMaken will come to some similar conclusions and share the same line of arguments.
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