powergrab 2001: Must the law "tell the truth and for everybody to follow the law"

jamesd at echeque.com jamesd at echeque.com
Sat Nov 24 10:59:14 PST 2001


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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
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