Daniel Pipes, an American polemicist, has gone so far as almost to endorse the military coups of 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997, arguing that “on four occasions between 1960 and 1997, the military intervened to repair a political process gone awry.” One wonders if Pipes would accept the US military taking over the American government if it should ever unilaterally conclude that American politics had gone awry.