IEDs in the U.S.?

[CornCod]

Well, al-Zarqawi's forces might have been doing badly, but his outfit was (and is) a pretty small-time player in the conflict.

 

[Caimlas]

I think that the war in the middle east is going to have some effects... I think we're going to see returning soldiers who become cops with VERY itchy trigger fingers, whose idea of serving a traffic ticket warrant involves throwing something through the window before unloading on the room...

And this dangerous mentality disturbs me probably more than the idea of armed gangs conducting warfare. At least with gangs, i'd know who's on my side.

There's nothing worse for our liberty than a well-trained "police"/paramilitary governmental force which has a distain for the life and wellbeing of the rest of the citizenry.

 

[RNB65]

I believe that Lind reached a little too far with this article. His imagination got the better of him.

However, I also believe that Muslim extremists will bring 4GW to the US. In fact, they have already done so. 4th generation war is war based on ideology rather than nationalisn. War in which the boundaries of state and soldier/civilian are meaningless. Everyone is the enemy. The goal is to destroy the enemy's culture by asymmetric means (aka, terrorism). 9/11 was a well executed first shot.

 

[Jeff White]

I think that the war in the middle east is going to have some effects... I think we're going to see returning soldiers who become cops with VERY itchy trigger fingers, whose idea of serving a traffic ticket warrant involves throwing something through the window before unloading on the room...

Yeah that really happened after WWII. I remember reading about all the arrests that were made by the veterans who joined the police dept using handgrenades and all the vehicle stops conducted with 3.5" rocket launchers.

If you had any idea about what the current rules of engagement are and the restrictions our Soldiers and Marines are forced to operate under, you'd realize just how stupid a comment that is.

Are you aware that many Army units conduct an AR 15-6 investigation into the circumstances of every insurgent suspect that was shot to make sure the ruels of engagement and SOPs were followed? What our troops are doing in Iraq now is much closer to police work then it is combat.

I'd say our returing Infantrymen are probably better equipped to be a police officer then any previous generation. I know this first hand. I spoke to my son often while he was deployed. I was shocked when he told me one day that he was going to ETS and become a police officer. Earlier he had told me that he never would have the patience to do what I do. I asked him what changed his mind and he described current operations. He's home now on block leave after returning from Iraq the first week of November. We've had several discussions about this issue. I was surprised how close their rules of engagement mirrored police procedures, to include an investigation of every shooting.

People should really do some research before they post.

Jeff

 

[tellner]

I'm afraid you're wrong on this one, Jeff. We know, not just "dang pussy libruls sez" but know that we paid an infinitely higher cost in Vietnam in terms of ruined lives, people who were never right afterwards, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and all the rest. They're seeing very high rates of the same thing in Iraq War veterans. The reasons are there in the literature for those who care to read.

We've been in combat operations longer than the Second World War now with no end in sight. It would be insanity to believe that there won't be serious consequences for large numbers of returning veterans. The exact form they will take will only be apparent in time. Homelessness? Poverty? We're seeing those already. Suicide? It's up. Crime? Very nearfetched.

 

[Jeff White]

tellner,
Check your PMs.

 

[Zundfolge]

we paid an infinitely higher cost in Vietnam in terms of ruined lives, people who were never right afterwards, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and all the rest.

UGH! Again, that is a "Big Lie" perpetrated by the leftist run media (Dan Rather in specific, but the rest of the left chimed in ... and of course John Kerry's "Winter Soldier" lies didn't help either).

There were no greater percentage of Vietnam vets that had problems fitting into society after they came back than there were people of the same age group that never went to Vietnam.


As for this wave of PSTD addled GIs that will become cops all I can respond to that with is a hearty

 

[bogie]

Jeff, let's rephrase things... I think that we'll have a police force that is more likely to "go tactical' than our present one... More likely to see the solution to a problem being "Flash bang through a window, and rush the bodies through the hole the battering ram just made in the door," than "wait until Bubba walks out to get the mail, and politely ask him to come downtown."

I'm also disturbed that they may be in a situation of enforcing legal firearms confiscation. Given the increasing militarization/tacticalization of our police forces, I wonder how long it'll be before "surplus" APCs (or uparmored hummers...) or even tanks start showing up in even Mayberry's departments... After all, gotta fight that war on some drugs... and then the war on violence... er... guns...

 

[Waitone]

 

[Zundfolge]

I think that we'll have a police force that is more likely to "go tactical' than our present one... More likely to see the solution to a problem being "Flash bang through a window, and rush the bodies through the hole the battering ram just made in the door," than "wait until Bubba walks out to get the mail, and politely ask him to come downtown."

I think thats already happened in many departments already ... its a culture thing that has nothing to do with where the officers served when (if) they were in the military. It has more to do with politicians grasping at straws while fighing a losing "war" on drugs.

I agree with the idea that our police have gone way too far toward adopting military tactics to police work, but I don't think it was because of the military service of individual officers.

Cops may not be "rocket scientist" smart, but I think most of them are smart enough to know the difference between downtown and a war zone.

 

[pedaldude]

I know exeactly what this is getting at, it's a little known incident in washington that involved a certain John Rambo.

the story unfurled exactly as our worst fears for returning highly trained soldiers of an unpopular war.

check it out:

the truth,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo