Letters to the Editor
tempus
Published Letters: 469 Editor's Choice: 8
-
Except
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]it won't be "just another bunch of guys", it might very well fire on civilians like the chinese army did at tienamin (the tank originally turned away - they didn't want to do it, but when ordered, they did)
I'm an officer in our military and I would NEVER accept an order to shoot citizen protesters. I would more likely JOIN the protesters (depending on what they are protesting) rather than try to squelch them. In fact, I would refuse to follow ANY order from "on high" in the case of repression of rights by a building tyranny.
There's that pesky oath thing I took "...to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic". That "domestic" part includes insurgents AND even the government, and members therein, itself. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are sacrosanct and no order of suppression can be valid and within the bounds of protecting and defending the Constitution.
I happen to know that there are a fair number of military members who would be like me and NOT obey orders to fire in our own version of Tienamen Square. I have an obligation to NOT obey illegal orders...
-
Funny
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Enlisted military do NOT get issued handguns; we have ALWAYS had to purchase them ourselves.
Not in the military I serve in. Weapons are issued. Period. NO ONE is allowed to bring/use their personal weapon.
Weapons (including sidearms) are issued for exercises and for the real deal. Not a single "privately owned" weapon to be seen.
I have no idea what the heck you're talking about.
-
Air Force...mileage may vary
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My son is on his second Iraq tour, carrying my Dad's 1911A along with his M4. He is with the 504th (82nd ABN). I served 6 years carrying my own sidearm.
I have never ever seen a personally owned firearm carried under any circumstances. I have seen, in some circumstances, enlisted members issued sidearms (and NOT M16s) but that may well have been an anomaly.
Personally, I'd prefer to be issued the M16...they can keep the M9 sidearm. The sidearm DOES feel like a waste of time, except when I was on B-52s. It would be impossible in any ejection seat aircraft to carry a rifle. That was one of the "anomalous" circumstances in which enlisted members were regularly issued sidearms: the tailgunner (a position that no longer exists).
In any case, I'll ask our SPs about personal sidearms next time I get a chance. Perhaps I am in error in that regard. (I would LOVE to be able to carry my own privately-owned rifle since they do not see fit to arm officers with such but I know for a fact that it is a no-no).
-
Sorry, some info is personally classified
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]name rank and serial number, please
Major, Air Force, B-52s in Desert Storm, currently serving in the Reserves. My serial number is my SSN (in the AF at least) and there's no chance in hell you're getting that. My name? Tempus will have to do...nothing written on the net every really disappears, afterall.
-
They work GREAT don't they?
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are more than a dozen Apache helicopters 5 minutes flight time from my house. 1.5 hrs south east of there are 25,000 troops and mobile armor.
Those Apaches work GREAT in Iraq, stopping all the nonsense don't they? HIGHLY effective. Equally effective in Aghanistan (kinda like the way the Soviet Hinds worked to quash the Mujahadeen there in the 80s).
Hell, all the B-52s, B-2s, F-16s, F-15Es, F/A-18s, M-1 tanks, AND your Apaches are smashing the insurgency quite well.
That's what I thought. The equivalent devices worked just as well in Vietnam. There are simply some types of conflict that all those toys are just not going to win you the fight. You COULD win by losing: TOTALLY destroy everything and everyone using up to and including nukes but then, you lose BIG TIME.
Those Apaches, etc, are not that much of a problem, I'm afraid.
-
I'm not QUITE saying that
[Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]he says that, unlike, tienamin, the U.S. military would not fire on civilians.
I have no doubt that there are any number of soldiers (and their commanders) that would be OK with firing on their own fellow countrymen/civilians. Hell, there were soldiers willing to violate the LOAC, the Geneva Conventions, the Conventions Against Abuse and Torture, and the UCMJ at Abu Ghraib (and STILL at Gitmo and other locations).
What I AM saying is that it wouldn't be some clean, surgical action where the military remains cohesive simply follows orders. The military would fracture with an unknown number (I would home MANY) refusing to take part in enforcing tyranny and, by necessity, turning against those that have no problem with doing so. Add to that a small, but NOT insignificant number of properly armed (and able) civilians who would act in an insurgency, and you end up with chaos and collapse, NOT a tight, well-run, overarching dictatorship.
I prefer chaos to authoritarianism personally.
I wont fire the FIRST shots but I would join in once they are being fired in earnest (and for good reason, ie, NOT to play out some racist "Turner Diary" nonsense).
We aren't there (yet) and there is hope of reversing all the insanity, just as we reversed the insanity of sticking Japanese-Americans into concentration camps, just as we reversed the insanity of McArthy. I HOPE we can nip the entire "unitary executive"-doesn't-have-to-obey-the-law crap soon (and peacefully) but I am willing to nip it by other means as well.