Militia Movement in the United States

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The militia movement (less often also Militia movement , English Militia movement ) is a social movement of paramilitary organizations (militias) in the United States of America . The Patriot Movement ideologically prepared the ground for the groups.

history

The fatal confrontations between American citizens and American federal agencies (especially the ATF and FBI ) in Ruby Ridge (Idaho, August 1992) and Waco (Texas, February to April 1993) are generally considered to be the reasons for the formation of the movement . The first large militias came into being in 1994, including the "mother of all militias", the Militia of Montana . The American militia terrorist Timothy McVeigh was responsible for the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. That date marked the anniversary of the branch-Davidian complex in Waco. Most supporters of the movement consider the Oklahoma City attack to be a covert false flag operation by the Clinton administration to raise political capital for anti-terrorism laws. The 1st Mechanical Kansas Militia openly campaigned for war against the United States government, claiming that troops from the People's Republic of China were training on US territory. Group leader Bradley Glover and members of the militia attempted to attack the July 4th celebrations at Fort Hood but were arrested by the FBI .

After the movement had almost disappeared around the turn of the millennium, it gained momentum again in the wake of the financial crisis from 2007 and the election of Barack Obama as US president in 2008. More recent examples are the Hutaree militia and the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge .

ideology

Michael Hochgeschwender locates the militia movement with which a minority of Christian neo-fundamentalists have allied themselves in the "most extreme wing of the right lunatic fringe ". It represents a subversive form of the agrarian utopian ideology of Thomas Jefferson . Harald Müller counts the militia movement he describes as “marginalized” alongside the evangelical right to the most extreme pole of American conservatism . She brings together hundreds of thousands of Americans in " military sports groups " whose declared aim is to protect the freedom of Americans from a conspiracy between the federal government and the United Nations (cf. the New World Order conspiracy theory ).

Well-known militia groups

literature

  • Nigel James: Militias . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 2, pp. 467-476 ISBN 1-57607-812-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Michael Hochgeschwender: American Religion: Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism and Fundamentalism . Verlag der Weltreligionen, Frankfurt, M. and Leipzig 2007, p. 198.
  2. Harald Müller: "American Unilateralism: A World Order Problem", in: Friedensgutachten 2000. Lit-Verlag, Münster u. a. 2000, p. 49f.