Revolutions are fought and won, often with armed force, and far less through a noble idea whose time has come. As much as we might like to believe that the “good guys” always win, or that right always triumphs over wrong, the fact of the matter is that it often is the side with the greater firepower and determination that prevails. So then, it does make sense for any country of self-worth, to be prudent and forward thinking enough to have the necessary military might to thereby protect itself, from foreign dangers. The fundamental problem, though, is that once a country determines that it is going to have, not a militia, nor an army reserve, but a fully functional standing army, along with all the other military branches, thereof; then it has made the fateful decision to engage full-time with that institution which has the power to exert itself in a future way that may not be in accordance with its own Constitutional law. History has shown us repeatedly that many nations have forcefully installed new governments, through violent military coups, of which those that were soldiers of that military essentially made a determination that their preference was to overthrow that which they were supposed to serve; to serve, instead, their military coup leader.
This thus indicates to believe that somehow, standing armies are forever loyal to their Constitution, and to their fellow countrymen, is belied by the historical fact that this clearly has not been the case, in country after country. So then, standing armies, as our Founding Fathers warned us, are an ever-present danger to the liberty of its own citizens, as well as a potential menace to the stability of that government, of, for, and by the people. Further to the point, as much as we might want to believe that our own military would never, under any circumstances, ever take up arms against its own population; we need to recognize that the police have consistently been called into domestic action, and without hesitation have willingly obeyed the powers that be. This thus begs the question, as to whether those that make up that standing army of which they have been trained from their indoctrination into those armed forces, to obey unquestioningly the chain of command, and of which that command has done its good part by providing those soldiers with good healthcare, housing, salary, benefits, education, and provided them with stability and purpose in their personal lives, as to whether when push comes to shove, that those soldiers would then abandon their discipline and put their guns down for Constitutional reasons, when they have been commanded instead by those that they respect, to do the very opposite.
To believe that it cannot happen here, is to ignore history as well as to dismiss the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. Further, and regrettably, even the citizens of this great nation, may not even be on the same page with each other about their government, of which, the appeal of a coup to some of those citizens, is their desire for an authoritarian government that behaves in a way in which their “yeses” means yes, and their “noes” means no. That, combined with the fact, that wars are ugly, bloody, protracted and destructive is the reason why the question must be asked, as to where does that loyalty of our standing army actually lie, for in this, lays the tale to be told.