• gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 days ago

    They’re not unlike law enforcement, in that regard.


    Unrelated (probably), but i just researched this and want to tell people:

    • The US Army & National Guard has a combined troop strength of around 1 Million soldiers. source They are typically under federal control or can be “activated” (in the case of the National Guard) to be put under federal control.
    • The US has a total number of police officers & law enforcement of, also, around 1 Million. source Most of them are under state & local control.

    I’m saying this because i have been wondering, in case states try to secede and trump sends all troops he commands to the states to stop them from doing so, what would be the likely outcome.

    Sorry, it’s a bit off-topic here, but the US situation is on my mind a lot these days.

    • frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      Depends on how many states we’re talking about and their geographic distribution. 1M isn’t enough to hold the whole country. It probably can’t even hold New York City. It could probably hold New Hampshire.

      Current US military doctrine suggests you need 1 soldier for every 3 people you’re trying to occupy. This is especially true when you have to assume every civilian is a potentially armed insurrectionist, and the US has a lot of guns in civilian hands. That said, fascists tend to throw out hard won wisdom like this, and tells the army they aren’t trying hard enough. For as much as they drone on about how they’re a bunch of tough guys, they are complete shit at actually fighting a war. Here’s a former US Army intelligence officer talking about the numbers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyBIqRunQ5Y

      Oh, and while the existing military might follow orders to take over states “in rebellion”, they’re going to be doing a lot of malicious compliance. The way they did Trump’s birthday parade proves it. They 100% phoned it in on purpose.

      One of the side effects of Trump trying to move so fast is that he doesn’t have time to purge the military and refill it with loyalists. That would take over a decade. Stalin did that to disastrous effect; the Winter War was only a technical win with catastrophic losses, and the later German invasion was barely held back. Hitler didn’t really try to purge the Wehrmacht, with the Night of the Long Knives being mostly a purge of their own SS people.

      Trump therefore has to rely on already loyal people with guns, which is mostly ICE, local sheriffs, and police. None of them are big enough to hold the whole country, either, or even a major state.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 days ago

        thanks for the video!

        on an unrelated note, if i had 1K dollars to prepare for the incoming situation, i would invest it to stock up on food durables, such as noodles. I would spend $900 on food and $100 on water.

        Humans are basically machines that run on food instead of oil. As long as the engine keeps turning, things can get done.