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i dont think the logics are the same at all---a police action involves citizens and is generally directed against crime, however that is defined, and so is basically reactive. a military action is directed at non-citizens and is generally proactive. the distinction hinges on the protection of rights--police work is for the most part reactive because of the presumption of innocence, yes? military work makes no such presumption.
another way: the two types of action operate in entirely different legal environments.
the confederacy while it existed was separate from the north.
so the civil war was military and not a police action.
the situations in chicago and seattle were police actions.
the most ambiguous situations are along the lines of the coalfield wars, the wars on organized labor, the "war against communism" which blurred these lines...
but i dont see the civil war as a useful element in this thread.
even the patterns of genocide directed at native americans are more ambuguous than the civil war..
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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