Thing is that it's not really the US. History took a major swerve around the ... idk, 1500s, 1700s (I really have to go look at history books and figure some real dates. I suck. XD;), and most white people who got to that continent were refugees leaving in semi-haste at best, not conquerors and not well-prepared, well-supplied armies, plus the native people did have traditional magic that they hadn't abandoned for progress in technology, so they held their own better. The map isn't the same as a result (there's still an Incan empire, for example) and the social/political institutions are set differently, and as a result police and military are ultimately part of the same chain of command because when you're at war for X centuries and the enemy is fond of creating panics in your towns far from the front, you don't want two chains of command. (well, that's the reasoning they give, it might have worked pretty well in some other way but historically that's their explanation.) (also, for example, you're not eligible for important offices if you haven't served X years, and even then you'd better have gone to the front at least once or not many people will vote for you.)

I'll have to show that more in the revised version. I kinda figured it out as I went, so I managed to slip hints exactly nowhere but that one mention of the police thinger. >_>;