"The U.S. Army chose a quiet community in central Utah as the training ground for Special Forces soldiers needing to develop Jason Bourne-like skills and to learn how to build a resistance movement by infiltrating the town leadership.
With the deeply religious culture present in Manti, Utah and the desert landscape of the area, residents were deemed ideal candidates by the Defense Department to role play with soldiers in the 10th Special Forces as part of a two week training exercise in July on unconventional warfare tactics."I don't mean to sound like an alarmist kook, but I don't like the sounds of this. At all. Have our Special Forces always done these types of training exercises on American citizens, or is this part of our new reality? Given the current regime, stories like this creep me out.
Thankfully for the good people of Manti, the mission was ix-nayed. For now.
"But the prospect of a military infiltration raised concern among the residents.
At a Manti City Council Meeting on November 7, one resident accused the government of dishonorable and deceptive motives for the mission.
Another citizen, Alan Braithwaite, said the training exercise was the first step in the U.S. government turning the country into a police state.
Concerned parents wondered if their children would be safe and if tanks and helicopters would fill the streets and skies. Others feared that soldiers looking for some R&R would run rampant and would corrupt the youth.
So when the plan fell by the wayside due to budget cuts, many welcomed the news but some are still hopeful the exercise will go forward at some point in the future."
"Another citizen, Alan Braithwaite, said the training exercise was the first step in the U.S. government turning the country into a police state."
ReplyDeleteUmm, Mr. Braithwaite is about 6 steps behind, I do believe.
Try nearly 50 years behind. I've mentioned various programs under the American Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) programs, including Phoenix...aka Phụng Hoang. See the Wiki summaries, relatively mild all considered, here: CORDS and Phoenix
DeleteA choice line includes: Central to Phoenix is the fact that it targeted civilians, not soldiers. Quoting Douglas Valentine from his book about the program. Actually it was that and much more than that.
It has been cited by "progressives" to condemn Americans and US Soldiers in particular, to include a recent book of bullshit by Nick Turse, who resurrects the Winter Soldier horseshit. Now neither Kerry nor Turse (not even born yet) could have had even a slight direct information about CORDS operations in general as they really were, not as they were imagined.
Keep in mind that all the while the progressives wail and moan about it, they copy it and utilize the same methods themselves...IT-IS-NOT-NEW. John Brennan is, and has been all along, Obama's replacement for LBJ's Robert Komer..the guy who ran CORDS essentially from the White House and/or under direct White House authority.
My point...there is no need for new training of infiltrators, we wrote the book on it long ago. We have US forces in 150+ locations in the World. Can any of us name even 20 of them? Even 10? But such stories make good "SQUIRREL" diversions...meanwhile we actively practice in 150 or more special spots.
One interesting quote from an officer who participated long ago: The problem was, how do you find the people on the blacklist? It's not like you had their address and telephone number. The normal procedure would be to go into a village and just grab someone and say, 'Where's Nguyen so-and-so?' Half the time the people were so afraid they would not say anything. Then a Phoenix team would take the informant, put a sandbag over his head, poke out two holes so he could see, put commo wire around his neck like a long leash, and walk him through the village and say, 'When we go by Nguyen's house scratch your head.' Then that night Phoenix would come back, knock on the door, and say, 'April Fool, motherfucker.'
The point is simple for me. I'm not about to lecture on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of such a program in a theater of war...and it was both. It is just that we already know how to do it and have for 50 odd years...or more. Try looking up the Jedburgh Scouts of WWII for some more history.
In the end, there is nothing stopping the US government from implementing something like it right here...we just think there is, but it has been stripped away carefully, while intentionally permitting the enemy to fester in our midst as the excuse. We've been had like a slut on Saturday night, as I said elsewhere.
Seriously, folks...read all of the Phoenix Wiki article. Then think about it.
DeleteThe Wiki piece is slanted toward the Kerry/Turse line of thinking...though neither ever spent a day in such circumstances, relying upon hearsay and "reports" written by those who might not have been telling the truth for self serving reasons...but today, decades later, they are what?
War sucks, harsh methods are necessary. Today an enemy can trigger a bomb from a cafe' anywhere. Just watch out that someday back at home you don't get a knock on your door at night and a greeting of "April Fool, Motherfucker!"
Can any of us name even 20 of them? Even 10?
DeleteAfghanistan and Iraq (still, some). Rasmstein in Germany. Okinawa (we're big in Japan). South Korea. Guam. Diego Garcia. Turkey, I'm pretty sure, still (Patriot missiles). Poland (ditto). Britain (bombers took off from there during Iraq war). Bahrain. Pakistan. Kyrgyzstan.Guantanamo, baby! Oh... Canada?! (Joint missile defense) Kuwait? Mali? Somalia? Yemen? Libya (anyone left?) UAE? (Must be.) Anybody left in Panama? Singapore?
This was off the top of my head, no google. (Almost forgot South Korea, LOL). Guessing at some of these, admittedly, but I think I got ten definite.
Ah, I think we just announced something for Australia, as well. So that's another definite.
DeleteNot bad Lewy...only 130 or so to go :D
DeleteDon't forget our assistance by combat forces, doing nothing but "advising" of course, in pursuing and fighting the Lord's Resistance Army of psychotic Ugandan Joseph Kony...from Uganda to the Congo and elsewhere. 17 Special Forces troops initially under Bush 43, increased to 100 under Obama in in 2011, when he said to Congress: "Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense,"
Hmmm. That does sound familiar.