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Old February 21, 2009, 02:14 PM   #1
Gaxicus
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Guard units drill on taking guns?

The article

Quote:
"Once credible intelligence has been gathered," said Kots, "portions of the town will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted in accordance with the residents' wishes.
The stated reasons for the drill are to catch a simulated arms dealer.

Just a quick question or two:

Why are national guard units training for law enforcement missions in a US suburb when that is the job of law enforcement?
Why an operation of such scale (4 days, the whole town) for 1 arms dealer?
Why would guard units be drilling on weapon confiscation in house to house searches?

This looks an aweful lot like the guard training to lock down a US suburb, conduct house to house searches and confiscate weapons to me.

Does this bother anyone else or am I the only kook here?
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Old February 21, 2009, 02:27 PM   #2
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It does seem...unusual

However, isn't one of the missions that guard troops, when deployed overseas, to conduct lockdowns and searches of neighborhoods? Looking for "arms"? We applaud when our troops do this in a foreign country, to "stabilize" the area, and reduce the violence from terorism.

It is cheaper to train in the US than ship our guys overseas and do it there, at least for the basics of operations.

Could this be part of preparing our military to disarm the citizens of the US? Sure, it could be. Could it be a valid training exercise to prepare our guys for duty in the sandbox? Sure, it could be.

I wouldn't bury your head in the sand, but I don't think the sky is falling just yet.
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Old February 21, 2009, 02:29 PM   #3
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I agree that isn't not exactly comforting to see this training exercise taking place. Hopefully you're right and it's not as bad as it could be.
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Old February 21, 2009, 03:45 PM   #4
Gaxicus
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Training methods

The US military has training facilities designed to specifically replicate iraqi/afgan villages etc. It makes sense that they are training in a US suburb for exactly the same reason. To replicate the expected theater of operations.

They cant possibly be training for sandbox operations in an Ohio suburb with US citizens. The cultural, topographical, technological, and the operating theater in general are so different as to make the training useless for the sandbox.

I dont mean to be a chicken little here but what I am seeing is that the National Guard (not law enforcement) is training for US suburban operations where they will lockdown the neighborhood and go door to door to search for firearms.

The reasons they state they are performing their training, to me, preclude the use of US military units to perform the operation at all. An arms dealer doing something illegal should be handled by ATF/FBI yes?

Very dubious. Add this to the FEMA camps and it really starts smelling like a duck.

Last edited by Gaxicus; February 21, 2009 at 03:53 PM.
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Old February 21, 2009, 03:49 PM   #5
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Quote:
Does this bother anyone else or am I the only kook here?
It shouldnt bother anyone who thinks critically and doesnt beleive in conspiracies.

Its just training for overseas deployment.

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Old February 21, 2009, 03:53 PM   #6
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I share your concerns. I would think/hope that if something like that happened there would be a lot of conscientious objectors.
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Old February 21, 2009, 04:08 PM   #7
Gaxicus
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rrrrrriiiiight

Quote:
Its just training for overseas deployment.
When facilities exist to actually replicate the theater of operations in Iraq/Afganistan why would you train in a US suburb unless thats exactly where the operations are likely to occur?

Anyone I talked to that worked in the sandbox says it might as well be another planet. Training like this cant be for the sandbox.

I dont want to look at this way but it just doesnt pass the smell test.
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Old February 21, 2009, 04:13 PM   #8
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44 is right on the money here. I certainly see why a person could look at this and be suspicious, but I'd also try to remember that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. I did a little door-to-door overseas myself, and while we weren't specifically looking for guns, we found and confiscated some. It is true that there are military installations that have mock villages, Irag and Afghanistan are not all sandbox locales. Iraq in particular has area that would surprise you. Neighborhoods that look like nice, quiet, peaceful, suburbs that you might see Wally and the Beav. This is the sort of thing you often see on the news but it exists. Insurgents don't have turf that they stick to. If a certain person being sought lived in a nice modern duplex that resembled an American household, do we want soldiers to be unfamiliar with this scenario?
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Old February 21, 2009, 04:15 PM   #9
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Quote:
When facilities exist to actually replicate the theater of operations in Iraq/Afganistan why would you train in a US suburb unless thats exactly where the operations are likely to occur?
Cost? Sort of like when they run disaster drills? Thats simple isnt it?
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem?

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There was a whole thread on this on another Board. Its degenerated into quotes from conspiracy websites. I urge the mods to watch this one, so that more shame is not brought on gun owners. Already we have invective here.
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Old February 21, 2009, 04:23 PM   #10
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Gaxicus, I'm not calling anyone that you've talked to liars. In fact most of over there does look like another planet, but Baghdad for instatnce is a big city. It's a vast area and the parts that aren't decimated actually look somewhat familiar. The smaller villages and desert terrain along with the mountains obviously looks like you'd expect. I don't assume to know what this exercise was all about. For all I know, they are planning to take all the weapons, but I doubt it. If you live near a base, you're probably familiar with seeing them conduct training right in your resindential area and don't think anything of it. Also to Wagonman, there would be more than a few objectors from in the military. They would have a major crisis of mass desertion and mutiny. I just find that for such a thing to ever happen would be impossible, but I could be wrong.
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Old February 21, 2009, 04:25 PM   #11
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WildhesasensibleguyAlaska knows what I'm talking about.
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Old February 21, 2009, 05:20 PM   #12
Al Norris
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Google the words, "MOUT Training." You will get a few 10's of thousands of hits. It's been going on, in both rural and suburban municipalities for years now.

Anything else is just a conspiracy.

Closed for just that reason.
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