The main argument trotted out by defenders of giant, super-armed governments is that such states offer vital protection to the peoples they claim to protect. Thus, according to this argument, the gigantic war machine stationed in Washington D.C. (or, more accurately, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Japan, etc.) stands as an indispensable bulwark against imminent foreign invasion that keeps the individual people living under its umbrella safe from attack from, inter alia, the German Kaiser, the Japanese, the Germans again, the Soviets, the "terrorists," Iraq, Iran, etc.

Now, it may be excusable for the egotistical governing class in Washington D.C. to indulge themselves with this twaddle, but for Coloradoans there is no excuse. Indeed, it only takes a few minuets of historical reminiscence to realize that this is not only false with regard to the state of Colorado, but the very reverse of the truth. Instead of protecting Coloradoans from vague foreign threats, the federal government of the United States has, from the birth of Colorado to the present, actually made Coloradoans the targets of foreign aggression. In other words, while the federal government has been piously claiming to protect Coloradoans since the mid-19th century, it has actually done nothing but put them in grave danger.

The history of the federal government’s wonton endangerment of Coloradoans’ lives begins with the War Between the States. (Actually, if we are to be thorough, the federal government’s disregard for Coloradoans’ lives begins with the Mexican American War, when the U.S. government assumed responsibility for the "protection" of the people then living in Colorado from Mexico. In subsequent years, the "protection" afforded to the indigenous Coloradoans turned out to be virtually synonymous with "ethnic cleansing" and "extermination." But I digress). When Lincoln decided to invade and lay waste the South in order to "preserve the Union," Colorado was not yet a state. But, the population was steadily growing, thanks to the discovery of gold, and especially silver, in the Rocky Mountains in 1859.

The Real Lincoln: A Ne... Dilorenzo, Thomas J. Best Price: $4.25 Buy New $7.48 (as of 07:05 EST - Details)

It should go without saying that the decision of the Confederate States of America to separate themselves from Lincoln’s sacred "Union" was not of any direct consequence to the relatively small population of miners, ranchers and farmers then living in Colorado. Whether or not "Honest" Abe or Jefferson Davis would collect taxes in South Carolina was completely irrelevant to their security or happiness. But, thanks to Imperial Abe’s quest to preserve the Union through blood, Coloradoans and the rest of the Western territories were placed in danger of invasion by the CSA.

The invasion never amounted to much of a threat, just as the Japanese attack on Hawaii never presented any real threat to Coloradoans living in the middle of the North American continent, and the ill-equipped Confederates were easily sent scurrying home by a rag-tag group of Denverites. Nevertheless, the people of Colorado had become targets of Southern anger, resentment, and intended invasion as a direct consequence of Lincoln’s war of aggression. The people of the Confederacy and the people of Colorado had no natural animosity toward each other — indeed, few Southerners probably even know what Denver was — and the Confederates would certainly not have attempted an invasion of the Western Territories had Abe been willing to leave them alone. Thus had Lincoln’s federal government itself placed Coloradoans in harm’s way instead of protecting them.

The Politically Incorr... Thomas E. Woods Jr. Best Price: $1.51 Buy New $8.71 (as of 06:15 EST - Details)

With Lincoln’s invasion complete, and all of the states locked in the federal government’s iron grip, the situation only got worse. It only took a few decades before a new President found another way to put Coloradoans in grave danger. President Wilson decided that the whole world was imperiled by the evil German Kaiser, except that by this time the federal government had become convinced that it was necessary to spill Coloradoans’ blood in order to defeat the enemy. For Coloradoans, there was never any question of being invaded or killed by the German Kaiser or any other foreign ruler. No rulers or people anywhere wanted to invade the United States, let alone Colorado — the whole conflict in Europe was nothing more than a giant internecine squabble within the British royal family. The lack of a threat to Coloradoans was apparently not relevant to Wilson, however, so he rounded up men of "military age" in Colorado and shipped them off to Europe. Thus had Woodrow managed to enslave and kill Coloradoans in the name of protecting them.

The whole farce would repeat itself two decades later when a new president decided to enslave and kill Coloradoans in a new European bloodbath. This time, the president managed to maneuver a former ally, the Japanese, into firing on Pearl Harbor, and he utilized the "attack" as pretext for sending Coloradoans to die on beaches in the Pacific and to Europe to die where their fathers had died. Again, there was never any question of Germany or Japan invading Colorado. By the time Roosevelt was shipping Coloradoans off to die, it was clear that the European war to save Poland was going to wind up being a fight to the death between Germany and Russia. Roosevelt was rather enamored with "Uncle Joe" Stalin, though, so Coloradoans were sent to kill and die to protect the Russians from the Germans. That it was irrelevant to Coloradoans whether Stalin or Hitler should prevail mattered not. Coloradoans were put in danger by the federal government and indeed died by the thousands for that purpose — not to protect Colorado.

After successfully defending the Russians from the Germans, the next president decided that we were not such good friends after all, and he decided to drop two nuclear weapons on Japanese civilians in order to tell the Russians so. The message was duly noted by the Russians, and the Cold War was on, with both sides scrambling to acquire killing capacities greater than the other. Part of this strategy involved constructing a nuclear trigger factory just outside of Denver and the United States Air Force Academy and the NORAD facility in Colorado Springs. The federal government claimed that these installations were necessary to "protect" all Americans from the Russians, but the effect on Colorado was to make it one of the major targets of nuclear attack by the Russians. It is perhaps unnecessary to note that the word "protection" has lost all meaning if it means making a people direct targets of nuclear annihilation. All the more so, since nuclear warfare between Russia and the United States was all but a foregone conclusion until John Kennedy became president. Colorado was almost vaporized in the name of "protecting" it.

The next phase in the Cold War involved sending Coloradoans off to die in Korea and Vietnam. The Koreans had never threatened Coloradoans, and neither had the Vietnamese, but that was irrelevant. Coloradoans were again rounded up and shipped off to kill and die in the Pacific in the name of "protecting" them. The "conflicts" were so pointless to American security and protection that both were fought to a standstill without any change whatsoever to the status quo — except that more Coloradoans were dead and wounded.

When the Cold War finally came to an end in 1989, it looked as though Coloradoans might finally get a reprieve from dying in other countries in the name of "protecting" themselves. Such was not to be, however, and the new administration conjured up a new "security threat" for Coloradoans to fight — this time in the desert. Like every other episode, the mustachioed man in the desert posed absolutely no threat to the people living in Vail and Boulder, but that was once again determined to be irrelevant. Coloradoans were sent off to protect one crooked Arab government from another, regardless of whether either of them had the intention or capacity to attack Denver.

The war in the desert and subsequent sanctions changed virtually nothing, except that over a million people were now dead, including Coloradoans. Nor had the war or the federal government’s policies done anything to change the main irritant in the Middle East: Israeli apartheid. If anything, things were worse now that Americans, including Coloradoans, were standing on Muslim holy ground. So, having provoked, attacked, undermined and humiliated virtually all of Israel’s neighbors, a handful of them decided to attack America. Coloradoans were once again made the target of violence and attack, thanks to the federal government’s foreign policy regarding Israel and the rest of the Middle East. In response to this developing threat, the federal government sent more Coloradoans off to die on foreign soil…

Enough time has passed, and enough Coloradoan blood has been spilled on foreign soil, for Coloradoans to realize that the federal government has not, and never will, protect Colorado from foreign threats. For, the tragic history of the relationship between Coloradoans and the federal government reveals no foreign threats to Colorado except those provoked or imagined by the federal government. The historical record reveals, in other words, a federal government that is itself bathed in the blood of Coloradoans.

The time has come for Coloradoans to tell the federal government to go to hell if it thinks it is going to send more Coloradoans off to die in the name of "protecting" them.

The time has come for Coloradoans to secede from the bloodthirsty federal government in order to defend their very lives from their supposed "protector."

The Best of Mark R. Crovelli