President Donald Trump said he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the military should use “dangerous” U.S. cities as “training grounds”.

Trump was speaking to top American military leaders who had gathered for a rare meeting at Quantico, Virginia.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    This (and all the other Red Dawn fantasy) misconception comes up quite often.

    Yes, we got wrecked by insurgents and guerillas… a lot. In large part because we actively did not want the land we were occupying (well, actually we couldn’t take it for geopolitical reasons but let’s just keep it simple). Under those circumstances, bleeding an army until it leaves “works”.

    Where is the army going to leave to? Are a bunch of ragtag high school kids with guns going to make trump et al leave the country?

    Nah. We are looking at something much more akin to russia in Ukraine where it is just atrocity after atrocity and a willingness to level whatever gets in the way.

    Also as far as the guerilla warfare thing goes: Sure, some parts of the US are conducive to hiding in caves. But, for the most part, you are going to be moving in areas where there are cameras on more street corners than not. Over the past decade, and the past few years especially, there has been a drastic rise in the number of cameras installed on streets and the like. Benn Jordan did a great video on them, if memory serves. But that also just ignores all the doorbell cameras and other IOT shit that is one “kiss the ring” call away from the chuds having access.

    And that also just ignores that over half the voting populace want this. You think that “karen” who calls the cops when someone has a party is bad? Wait until she is reporting the people who just spray painted some of those cameras.

    Nah. This is not going to be a bunch of plucky rebels fighting in between macking sessions while you play Pokemon Go.


    I can’t find it right now but maybe five years ago I read a REALLY good think piece from former Intelligence people that basically questioned whether the insurgencies in Afghanistan made a difference. And… the general consensus was “no”. Bin Laden would still be dead, the Taliban crippled, and the region thrown into chaos before we got bored and left. Sure a bunch more people would be alive but it really wouldn’t make any difference for the current day whether the insurgency kept bleeding the US military for almost twenty years or whether they just sat and waited for us to leave.

    • bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      And that also just ignores that over half the voting populace want this.

      MAGA is only, maybe about 1/3rd of the voting populace, there are a large chunk of “republican” voters that are just dumbshit morons that dont know what theyre doing (i know too many) and a much, much larger blissfully unaware population that would whole hog not want anything to do with a hostile takeover by the government. Doing an actual invasion is a fantastic way of turning these people against the military.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        Doing an actual invasion is a fantastic way of turning these people against the military.

        I’m not so sure… They seem to be OK with it because it’s their “team.”

      • guy@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        Unless the silent majority hunkers down with thought of “this doesn’t concern me and if I keep my head down I won’t be touched”. Not standing up against fascism is agreeing with it

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      This scenario would also make the various economic crises of the last twenty-ish years look like a calm Sunday picnic. America can sustain stupid non-productive forever wars overseas because we have a very-nearly functional society and economy here at home. If the American government starts trying to violently subjugate its own citizens, we will see in real time just how complicated, interconnected, and fragile our internal infrastructure really is.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Would actually be a genuinely amazing feat considering just how ridiculously ubiquitous they are. And how many doors and houses you would be smashing up for all the IOT stuff.

          • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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            2 days ago

            Sure then. Just hack the planet. I am sure we can find a dolphin for Ice T to roll with.

            Again. People keep thinking in terms of movies and all the YA we grew up on and so forth. They don’t realize just how fucked everything already is and how “just destroy it” isn’t viable.

            And… you can’t Resist if you don’t know what is against you. Hell, you can barely Survive.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Take a steel wrench/spanner to the top of a telephone pole with one of those round transformers on top. Carefully drop the wrench so it connects with both of the connectors on the transformer. It will explode, so watch out. It will also create an EMP that should cover about a city block in radius.

            • nomy@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              Shorting a transformer isn’t going to do anything with a EMP where are you getting that?

              What it WILL do is create an arc thats about 20k+ c that will kill you if you’re lucky. But yes it’ll probably knock out power for a few hours.

            • Geodad@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              A rifle bullet can easily destroy a transformer. All it takes is a hole to drain the liquid from it.