The President appears to be afraid of his Praetorian Parade Guard:
Take a close look at the M-14 rifles the Marines where carrying at
Obama’s second inauguration. The bolts have been removed from the rifles
rendering them unable to fire a round.Apparently Obama’s Secret Service doesn’t trust the USMC. Simply
searching each guy to make sure he didn’t have a live round hidden on
him wasn’t enough, they had to make sure the guns were inoperable. Remember all those times George Bush (miss him yet?) traveled to Iraq
to meet the troops? Troops who had working rifles slung on their
shoulders, with loaded magazines in pouches on their belt. I can’t recall ever seeing the troops with weapons in hand when Obama
paid them a visit and after seeing this, if anyone can find such a
photo, I’d have to bet that the bolt carriers had been removed prior to
Obama’s arrival.It’s painfully obvious how much contempt Obama has toward the
military and the feeling is mutual…and the Secret Service knows it too.
From a purely symbolic perspective, this strikes me as a very last days of Rome motif. What sort of Commander-in-Chief doesn’t trust the men he is commanding? And why doesn’t he trust them?