den Otter wrote:
> > From: Dick.Gray@bull.com
> > den Otter writes:
> > "If you cut off your private army's funds they'll do exactly what
> every
> > other pissed-off private army did before them: they'll come and take
>
> > it by force (perhaps shooting you, torching your home and raping
> > your wife, kids and dog if they feel like it). An army that's
> intended
> > to take on PPAs and even nation states shouldn't have much of a
> > problem with coercing a couple of civilians."
> >
> > You're forgetting that this private army (aka militia) would be
> *us*, or
> > our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.
>
> The problem is that many people can't/won't be professional soldiers,
> and in a world full of (potential) enemies you really need more than
> just a bunch of guys with AKs; you need trained personnel that can
> fly helicopters, fire missiles, operate tanks, knows about demolition,
>
> surveillance techniques, counter-intelligence etc, etc. This means
> that
> you have to form a standing army with (probably) mercenaries, as
> was often done troughout history. People's militias can be a good
> addition to a professional army, but are not sufficient to defend your
>
> territory against a serious attack in this day and age.
>
> There is one alternative tactic, of course: stockpile weapons of
> mass destruction and threaten to use them against anyone who
> attacks. This *does* severely limit your tactical possibilities, of
> course...
Considering that the full time active duty US military is now only a fraction of the total US military, maybe half at most, as most personnell and equipment is now in the hands of Reserve and National Guard units, whose personnel is all made up of local volunteers with only a very small percentage of personnell being full timers. The rest are all on the one weekend a month, two weeks a year jag. This seems to contradict your statements. Especially the fact that of the minor conflicts we've had over the past couple decades have seen guard and reserve units on site first.
In a PPA ungoverned society, as I proposed elsewhere, those individuals who wish to retain the right to defend oneself can be trained on PPA equipment and serve as reserve deputies/security adjutants. Giving such people a discount on their premiums would also be an incentive to participate.
Having worked on F-15A/B models as well as F-111's, I can say I still remember enough that I could get back on board rather quickly, especially since I'm using flight simulators so much now, and am working at getting all my private pilot ratings in the spring. Realistically, a two man team can service, maintain, and fly any tactical aircraft in the US inventory given the training, and being based at any private airport with a 2500 foot runway, and once trained and proficient, they can operate part time, rotating shifts with other teams on the same equipment. The only outside support is a fuel, arms, and parts logistics, a hangar to run a phased maintenance depot every few months, an engine test cell for engine overhauls, and modular support from the avionics manufacturers, all of which are full time profitable enterprises.
Mike Lorrey