-- On 24 Nov 2001, at 8:19, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
The military isn't trained to be a police force, he says, so it should stick to the skills for which it is trained: surveillance, information gathering, logistical support. All of these activities are allowable under Posse Comitatus.
The primary job that the military is trained for is to kill enemies in war time. Soldiers are trained not to worry about collateral damage, not to worry too much if civilians happen to be in the way, and they are trained to shoot first, think later, and forget about asking questions. If soldiers are used for law enforcement purposes, they have habits that make them bad law enforcement officers and will develop habits that will make them bad soldiers. In guerrila wars, where the enemy is hidden and intermingled with civilians, there is often substantial overlap between military and police functions. However, such wars have never been won by the military alone, unless they adopted scorched earth policies and drained the river to catch the fish. Always, to win a guerrila war they needed a local militia who knew the local people, needed a local militia to perform the policing functions for them, to perform functions soldiers are not trained to perform. Soldier's are not only too dangerous to be cops, they are also incompetent as cops. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG XNZwXCHQ+ncT1elsjih591aKD0GfBjFTYfctrRrw 4/IumGPneBlkJfvem70c79jYBmDV/7MpJ3RIlHeSV