| January 10 |  |
Editor says, what if the fiscal cliff leaves even the army unpaid? At the suggestion of her DH, our Jackie Rose has imagined a very startling outcome. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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It is 2013, and America has indeed fallen over the fiscal cliff...to the point where the government has failed to raise the debt limit or pass a budget. Now it is in complete default, to the point at which there is no longer any money to pay the Armed Forces.
Lord Protector ObamaNaturally, the Army is close to mutiny...until their generals solve the problem by invading both the House and Senate at the same time. Paraphrasing the immortal words of the famed Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, the leading general steps up to the Congressional podium and announces, "Out on you, you are no Congress".
When the president is notified, he rushes there, too. In his most eloquent and persuasive tones, he tells the generals that he supports them completely as their commander in chief. Knowing that the alternative might be their trial for high treason, they acclaim him as their leader.
Thanks to an emergency tax, the soldiers are paid...and the government's other beneficiaries soon share the wealth provided by the new military administration.
Entry posted by
Jackie Rose
© Jackie Rose, 2011-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Fiscal Cliff, Barack Obama, Martial Law, Democracy, America.
~ I hope not, though it would serve some of the "oppose everything" crowd right.
~ This would be the catalyst of the Second American Civil War. Some of us (myself included) wouldn't take this lying down.
~ An invasion by Communist China, or any other country, would make our military even stronger as the public rallied around it.
~ Countries that don't pay their armies do tend to collapse. One would hope the highly paid ghost employees would be the first to go, but then one would hope to never get into this place.
~ Indeed they do! In fact, part of the concept was inspired by watching "Rome" last night...where a shipment of gold played a crucial role in the conflict between Caesar and Pompey...because both needed it to pay their soldiers.
~ Such an apocalyptic scenario is highly unlikely. And even if it happened, there's every reason to believe the generals (most of whom, at least IOTL, are Republican) would send Obama packing as well and, late-Roman-style, pick one of their own, or elsea convenient Claudius of a civilian cutout, to run things.
~ For me, I just don't like the possibilities on the other side of this one.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
