Day of fear and reckoning in Washington, DC

ON THE historic day that US President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time in his term and just a week before the inauguration of his successor President-elect Joe Biden, Washington, DC, looked like it was under siege and preparing for war.

On a sunny wintry day in the capital of the United States and in a scene that left many Washingtonians stunned, hundreds of National Guard troops, dressed in uniform, some of them with their assault rifles propped up, were seen sleeping on early Wednesday morning in the hallways of the Capitol Building, the first time American military troops have camped there since the Civil War.

It was symbolic that some of these soldiers were resting under the bust of President Abraham Lincoln who had led the nation in confronting an insurgency in the 19th century, that was not so different from the violent insurrection that now poses a threat to the United States.