All hear that? 400,000 personnel posted here in the United States? What on earth for?
If this does not send off the alram bells, what will it take?
This is obviously a plan to use these military personnel for some type of law enforcement!
This pretty much wraps it up. Last week CNN reported that the Pentagon has made plans to deploy troops to assist law enforcement in the H1N1 outbreak...and the "proposal" is waiting on DOD Secretary Gates for approval.
This breaking news article states that The Pentagon and the DHS have already contacted law enforcement agencies about the "interest" in using the military during "emergencies".
17 comments
You're kidding me. 400,000 personnel could effectively police, oh I don't know, maybe New York City with any kind of efficiency?
@#1012472
The whole of the UK's armed services, included the TA, is only around 425,500.
Not that it changes anything this idiot is saying, but I just thought I'd point out 400,000 is, to some countries, a lot of troops.
Well, let's see we're closing army and USAF bases in Germany, and those active duty personnel have to go somewhere. And we only have about 100,000 or so troops in Iraq, and I imagine if you throw in reservists and National Guard personnel you'd easily get over 400,000 troops in the US.
Aside for Iraq, Afghanistan, Italy, Japan, Britain, or deployed at sea, where else would you expect to see US Military personnel, other than the USA?
Did you ever stop to think that the vast majority of those 400,000 troops are not infantry soldiers? They are cooks, admin clerks, medical personnel, mechanics, etc. There are thousands of different jobs in the military and not all of them require carrying guns and shooting things. If you think a desk jockey is going to be well-trained as a jack-booted thug, think again.
Of course, this trash did come from Above Top Secret. Which, if this information really was classified Top Secret or higher, how did these nutjobs get hold of it?
Hot mews flash, burntheships, but we do have "emergencies" of a pretty fucking monumental scale here from time to time (do Hurricane Katrina, tornado alley, or California wildfires ring any bells?), and unlike the idiot who last occupied the White House, perhaps our current president thinks it might be a good idea if we could actually save some lives the next time carastrophe strikes, instead of having to watch thousands of people slowly die on CNN.
He's also undoubtedly aware that it would be nearly impossible to contain an epidemic without military force due to all of you paranoid, nutcase, every-man-for-himself militia-types, who would undoubtedly refuse quarantine if exposed to some pathogen, thus putting the whole country at risk.
Supply drones, airforce mechanics, personnel involved in training, thousands of bean counters and paper shufflers in the Pentagon itself, In fact, the whole raft of REMFs that a modern, tail heavy, enormously pork barrelled, technologically bedazzled military machine requires to keep it's Generals in shiny staff cars and overstaffed conferences.
Personally, I'm suprised that it is so few as 400,000
According to government figures there are 1,460,934 active duty army, navy, marines, air force, and coast guard personnel (http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/ms0.pdf ). I hope this guy realizes that the vast majority of whom are stationed right here in the USA.
It may come as a big surprise to you, but most countries keep their armies inside their own borders. That's because we use them mainly for defence (or even "defense" if you want). Fair enough, looking at US foreign policy over the last decade you may be excused for thinking that armies should generally be overseas, fighting wars of aggression, but believe me, that's not how it usually works.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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