A nightmare: a fantasy

Just suppose that, from some distant foreign country closely allied with the United States, we were all to learn one day -- suddenly and as an intrusion on our own domestic concerns -- that the country's (elected) President had ordered into existence a system of martial law, and pursuant to that order that he had prohibited meetings of his country's elected legislature until further notice.

Suppose his happens not now, but sometime soon after Jan. 20, 2025.

It might easily spiral into a serious matter affecting the interests of the US. Consider, for example, that there might be US military bases there -- there might continuously have been military bases there since a war in the early '50s.

Perhaps the situation becomes violent, and the violence spreads out beyond the capital city. A couple of nearby foreign countries, which had been enemies of this country, and of the US, in this earlier war, are watching closely to see how far this disruption goes.

The President calls his Secretary of Defense. What does the Secretary have to say?

"Huh? Wow, I don't know. I'm hungover, dude. My f-ing HEAD hurts. 'Scuse me while I go throw up."

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