We don’t need to look to Germany to see how this goes

I saw first hand the aftermath of a fascist dictator in Iraq

They are telling us the plan

This week more details of the extremist Heritage Project led ‘Project 2025’ plan came to light through dogged reporting by the New York Times, Washington Post, Axios, MSNBC, an entirely too small list of other media. This outrageous concept funded by $22 million in dark money will be the wholesale deconstruction of our government, checks and balances, and our democracy as we know it.

The latest reporting from the New York Times focused on the insane and draconian plans for immigration being developed by Stephen Miller to lead the largest crackdown on migrants in history. They are hoping to sweep up and deport 10 million immigrants with unannounced workplace raids; deputizing local police and the military; building detention camps; and manipulating existing laws like the Insurrection Act and Title 42 to simply kick them out of the country.

Most disturbing to me is plans to use National Guard units to conduct these raids against America and deporting the thousands of Afghan interpreters and others we worked so hard to get out of the country as it fell. All of the racism you can imagine is being pushed.

Many are rightly comparing Project 2025 to Hitler’s takeover of the German government. It is made easier by Trump’s use of wording that literally echoes, if not copies, Hitler and Mussolini. Calling your political opponents’ “vermin” and a host of fascist threats is a sure sign and as many point out, we should believe him when he says these things.

It reminds me of a story I’ve told before about my own experience that seems more relevant than ever.

Mud huts and clarity

I don’t think we need to look 100 years back to Germany or Italy to find comparisons to what could happen under this draconian remaking of our government and nation. Several million of us served in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and saw first-hand what life under a ruthless dictatorship might look like. I spent countless hours during my three tours talking to Iraqis about what life had been like for 35 years and the scars that experience left on their psyches and nation.

My first tour was the actual invasion in March 2003 with the 101st Airborne where I served as the Operations Officer for a Blackhawk helicopter equipped general support aviation battalion. Once we arrived at Qayyarah West Airfield in southern Ninewa Province I fell into a side role as a civil affairs officer assisting local civilians and serving as our liaison to a wide swath of the farmland outside our base.

I worked with a remarkable man named Dr. Mohammed who was a physician and the leader of his village. Since he spoke English, he was the man asked by his peers to serve as our connection and we developed a close friendship that lasted up until his assassination in 2011. He was murdered in the clinic I helped build in his village. But that’s another story.

Dr. Mohammed and I spent countless hours talking. Usually over a lunch on giant platters on the floor of a mud hut building. One that stands out at this moment is one that occurred shortly after bombs started going off on the main highway. They were being planted by insurgents often in broad daylight and no one was reporting them.

Lunch with Dr. Mohammed in June,2003

Not seeing things

I asked Mohammed how no one sees them or reports them to us so we can stop it? His thoughtful reply is seared in my memory. He said, “Major Wellman, you must understand that for 35 years under Saddam you learned not to see things. You learned that when the black SUV’s showed up at night next door and the family was gone the next day, you didn’t see it.”

“Under Saddam, not seeing things is how you stayed alive.”

I think of this today as I read about the outrageous plans. While many are focused on the camps and the devastation to the economy when millions of employees are yanked from the workplace, I was thinking about how this all will play out for average Americans. I think of the details based on how it worked in Saddam’s Iraq.

Fascism isn’t just the government

I heard many stories in Iraq as I spoke with civilians, took their claims for crimes against them by the former government, and just got to know them. One that sticks out is a local telling me how under Saddam if another village was being difficult or a family had land you wanted nearby the easiest solution was to call up the secret police and report them as being spies or disloyal. The Army would raid their village, find anything suspicious, and arrest everyone, or destroy it. You could go right in and take over the empty space.

So, let’s look at what that looks like here. Perhaps someone owns a painting company. It’s a tough business and margins are thin. They’ve got a competitor they hate. Simply call up ICE, Homeland Security, or CBP and let them know that your opponent is employing migrants. In comes the National Guard and scoops everyone up. Arrests the owner. Puts him out of business. Just like that. No more competition.

ICE and Homeland Security raid a Texas technology company in 2019

How about those noisy neighbors? Playing their Mexican music too loud. Having huge family gatherings all the time. Sure, they are all legal immigrants. They’ve been here for multiple generations but old Billy Bob, he doesn’t like “those kind of people.” Simply call up his buddy at the Sheriff’s department with his fresh certificate from Trump’s DHS as a ‘certified immigration enforcement agent of the United States Government.’ They raid the house. Tear it apart looking for “evidence” of fake papers or those secret hiding places where all of the “illegals” are hiding in the basement that they were tipped off about.

They terrify the family. Find something else like drugs without a prescription or a gun they keep hidden for protection and end up getting arrested. Old Billy Bob sits on his porch with his Bud Light, even though he’s totally not gay or anything, laughing and enjoying the show.

If you don’t think that’s what is going to happen, you are in denial. As the old saying goes…denial isn’t just a river in Africa.

We have seen this playbook

This has happened before and if you don’t think it can happen here, we are heading for a very rude awakening because it already is. Look no further than Kansas where a local police department raided the newspaper after a prominent friend of elected officials claimed they had their personal information stolen and published illegally. The paper was turned upside down and the elderly mother of the publisher died of a heart attack after they searched her home.

Police raid the offices of Marion County Record

It is happening here.

We must keep talking about these malevolent plans. We must work and organize to ensure that Democrats are elected from top to bottom. This isn’t a time for stupid fantasies about some magical third party or that Trump’s problem was just really some mean tweets.

Democracy as we know it is on the ballot. Don’t sit it out.

I actually did a video about the last round of reporting on Project 2025 last week. Check it out here. Thank you for being a subscriber and I hope you’ll consider a paid upgrade so I can do this work. I have a very big announcement coming shortly that means I will have to fight for our democracy personally in a way I have never before in my life. Your support would mean the world to me.