feasibility of surprise invasion of major city?

[dwestfall]

This has already occurred. It's called Los Angeles.

 

[miko]

if one docked in NYC, where citizens are largely defenseless, and a horde quickly overwhelmed any dock security and local police, and just started shooting and bombing everything in the city, could they be stopped?

Better question is - should they be?
Should anyone outside NYC care to come to the help of a 6 million city so corrupt that it cannot defend itself against 10,000 somalians - even disregarding huge advantage accruing to the defender in urban combat?

miko

 

[griz]

Getting thousands of armed men off of a boat is something that would take a while. You didn't have room for trucks on the boat so they are walking to their individual invasions. I think somebody would notice. Admittedly they could still cause a ruckus even without the element of surprise, but I'm not sure what it would accomplish.

 

[shepherdschool]

Red Dawn

It would make a good movie, what would happen would be that every "gun nut" whould prove once and for all (at least for a while) that there is a need for civilian firearms.

There has been talk of terrorists smuggling weopons in via our borders, and there has been lots of concern that there is no real way to check all our shipping containers coming into port.

But as we have a lot of guns it'd be hard to get a settlement from Americans cause of a sneak attack. I mean isn't that why we fought Japan, and Iraq?

 

[Aguila Blanca]

It's a Steven Seagal movie. He's a cook on a coast guard cutter when it happens. Lots of exploding stuff and civilians getting in the way. If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all.

I thought I had at least heard of all the Seagal movies, but I must have missed this one.

Got a title for me to take to Blockbuster?

 

[Cosmoline]

This has already occurred. It's called Los Angeles.

I know, isn't it tragic? Now there's no getting rid of the Anglos. They control all of California.

 

[afasano]

Mr. Clancy, you're late for your pill.

 

[GRB]

sure such an invasion is possible. They can get thousnads of pounds of weed onto these boats and no one knows, then they get it off and no one knows. Of course they could put a few thousand or more troops into a ship with no one knowing, or at least no one paying attention if done right. Haven't you ever seen the ships with at least hundreds of aliens aboard as they come to our shores? Surely Cuba, or Haiti could send a fairly large invasion force pretty much unnoticed until they get here - happens all the time. Then again, so could China (remember the ship a couple/few years back that went into the Rockaway beaches in NYC.

As for this one though:

if one docked in NYC, where citizens are largely defenseless

you sure would be surprised how many people have guns in NYC wouldn't you? I wouldn't be surprised; lots of people have em, lots of people. Police cannot get em off the streets. Besides the illegal ones, there are also lots of legal firearms in NYC. Considering the city has about 7 or 8 million people, they may be better defended than some berg like the whole state of Kansas. Like the T-shirt says:

NYC - it ain't f'ing Kansas! {Picture of big smoking revolver on same shirt.}

(By the way, no offense meant to anyone from Kansas.)

I mean who in the world is watching the Duchey of Grand Fenwick expecting them to attack us anyhow? Save the Q Bomb!

All the best,
Glenn B

 

[Justin]

With any luck, Jerry Bruckheimer will option this thread for low against mid six figures and a 10% take of ticket sales and merchandising.

 

[bcochran]

Response

The original post raised several questions.

If you posit surprise, then surprise occurs.

During WWII, several low level sabatours were landed in this country and promptly rounded up and executed. They did not blend in. They did not all speak the language very well. They became disoriented and fatigued.

Now, 10,000 guys land from one ship. How far can they walk in one day? Do they have any supplies or is this supposed to be one of those "living off the land fantasies?" Do they sleep? Do they get tired? Do they speak English? You haven't stated any "goals" of the 10,000.

Can 10,000 inflict damage? Of course! Can they burn down a city? Of course! What is the point?

During the Vietnam War, I often wondered why there wasn't sabatoge commited in this country on behalf of the North Vietnamese. Conversely, imagine 10,000 people who don't speak English rushing around in San Pedro Ca.

During the last Presidential election, one of the candidates came up with a solution to Afghanistan. He wanted to double SF. Well it cost $1M a year in 2002 to field one Seal. And the total no. of SF and alphabet soup people is about 35,000. So, would a total of 70,000 troops sent to a country with no roads win? Would you spend another 350 billion a year? Would you understand that it takes about 12 years to develop an SF guy? No. You just fantasize. What would happen to 70,000 SF put into Afghanistan with no supply? Oh, well, 10,000 undisciplined and ill trained Somalis are supposed to do better?

 

[GRB]

They can die 10 thousand deaths!

 

[mussi]

What would happen if a cargo ship had containers on the top with katjusha launchers, being fed by containers underneath, with a mix of of HE and incendiary warheads, and maybe some chemical weapons? Just image the surprise of the dock workers when suddenly 4 containers 'unwrap'and start firing their stuff, and crewmen with LMGs where on the reeling, repelling boarders for some time?

In the same vein, one could of course equip such a ship with SAMs, have it sail into NY harbor and then start a turkey shot with civilian airliners.