One more take on SHTF

[MadKaw]

I've been reading 2 books on real world SHTF.
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang and Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Israel Guttman.
The comparisons and contrasts between the two stories are (I'm at a loss for words) astonishing. It was certainly a time of unbridled evil.
The most striking contrast was both the difference and lack of difference made by merely the will to resist. Neither population had the means by which to prevail, and both populations died.
We have been so lucky in this country to come face-to-face with evil so rarely that most of us have no idea what it is. We posture and pontificate - from our leaders to ourselves - on morals and ethics and survival and all the various "isms" that both unite and divide us. We are all arguing at the kiddie end of the pool about whose rubber duckie it is, while we're wandering into water where we had better learn to swim.
That goes for democrats and republicans, socialists and libertarians. All of us are idiots totally unprepared to stare down evil.

Please read these books.

[btleslie]

Not having read them yet, but based on your comment "Neither population had the means by which to prevail, and both populations died." I would say this is all the reason we need to protect the 2nd Amendment and as long as it is upheld and reclaimed (from the numerous unconstitutional gun laws) we will never be in this situation. This is why we must continue to fight the pro gun fight, because without the means to defend ourselves from "enemies foreign and domestic" we could easily be in this situation with the wrong leader.

[Jake3501]

And my wife has the audacity to ask why I have more than one firearm!

[MadKaw]

Not having read them yet, but based on your comment "Neither population had the means by which to prevail, and both populations died." I would say this is all the reason we need to protect the 2nd Amendment and as long as it is upheld and reclaimed (from the numerous unconstitutional gun laws) we will never be in this situation. This is why we must continue to fight the pro gun fight, because without the means to defend ourselves from "enemies foreign and domestic" we could easily be in this situation with the wrong leader.

That's certainly part of what I was getting at, but not all.
I'm not even sure about what "all" means. It's very complicated and very emotional.
Even with my "armory" I would not be happy going up against a modern military machine. Or even one as primitive as those of WW II. Sometimes it's more a question of how you die rather then whether. That's where I get into the morass of confronting evil - and recognizing it in the first place.
When George Patton said, "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his," he had the luxury of having one of the worlds best armies behind him. If all he had had was a few small arms, all his generalship, all the soldiers would have left him the same options they had in Warsaw.
On the other hand, had he had all the equipment the Chinese army left as they fled Nanking, he would still have died, but not as the soldiers died - cut down as they tried to flee.

[btleslie]

I would also add that (and this is just my opinion) since we have an all volunteer military that for the most part love this country (there's always some nut jobs) would not blindly enforce this on us. It might be accepted as strategic by some in the upper echelons (I doubt all or even many), but the further down the chain it goes the more likely there would be a resistance in the troops. Unless a true nut job politician and/or top general decided to use our nukes on us I don't believe that our fellow Americans in the military would stay involved in an armed conflict against us. Maybe I am naive, but I have to stay hopeful or I'll just go nuts myself.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Also, Lord give me the courage to change that which I can, The peace to accept that which I can't and the wisdom to know the difference. These are two of my favorite sayings/motto's. I know things are going to get worse in this country before they get better, but I still believe America is the best country the world has ever seen.

Ok off my soap box now.

[Shinsou]

I agree. There isn't any psycho-indoctrination that would lead me to do something like that and I feel that most if not all the service men and women I work with would agree.

I would also add that (and this is just my opinion) since we have an all volunteer military that for the most part love this country (there's always some nut jobs) would not blindly enforce this on us. It might be accepted as strategic by some in the upper echelons (I doubt all or even many), but the further down the chain it goes the more likely there would be a resistance in the troops. Unless a true nut job politician and/or top general decided to use our nukes on us I don't believe that our fellow Americans in the military would stay involved in an armed conflict against us. Maybe I am naive, but I have to stay hopeful or I'll just go nuts myself.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Also, Lord give me the courage to change that which I can, The peace to accept that which I can't and the wisdom to know the difference. These are two of my favorite sayings/motto's. I know things are going to get worse in this country before they get better, but I still believe America is the best country the world has ever seen.

Ok off my soap box now.

[tobin]

Rage into the Storm

[bre346]

'resistance in the troops'. That leads me to remember the French Canadians' reply to the English recruiters to go fight the revolting Americans two hundred yeas ago. Roughly' We won't fight the French Americans.' for that would require then to fire on their own families too.

The result was a ruse consisting of a called meeting in the town church. "Stack your arms outside, there must be no arms in the house of God." The church was surrounded by English soldiers and the good unarmed French-Canadian farmers within led out one by one and shipped off to France, South America and New Orleans.

More directly: "Dad, would you fire on your own son if he came to take away your guns?"
"Son, would you fire on your own father if you were sent to take away his guns?"

I pray to God such will never come up.

[MadKaw]

In the Civil War brothers fought on opposite sides. Are we any less divided today?

[NativeTexan]

I just simply don't sit around worrying about such stuff. I vote. In this country, revolutions are FIRST AND FOREMOST done by the vote. Should it come to the use of arms, well, I'll be too danged old to get involved, anyway, I reckon. I have guns and ammo and camping and fishing equipment that I enjoy using. That's my preparation for anything. As mama used to say, I'll cross that bridge when i come to it.