thats a rather skimpy border fence.

Walking in an open grass field. That's smart... if you want to:
1) Give away your position
2) Get shot
3) Get blown up
4) All of the above
And as for the dudes walking through the forest, they really ought to spend time OFF the trails.

Less time posing for tacticool photos, more time training and learning tactics, maybe?

This just about sums it up...

hahaha that stuff is hilarious.

hahahaaha

I must say, I really don't see the point behind militias.

First of all what exactly is their purpose?

1. To Defend America? We have a Military, a Reserve Military, a National Guard, and even Law Enforcement. (Yes, Civilian Law enforcement has been used for Civil Defense before, especially in WWII).

In the absurd case of a invasion (the only country with even the remotest possibility is about 7000 miles away), why would you want to join a militia? Why not join the REAL military? In fact in such a extremely unlikely scenario (I think an invasion from Space Aliens is more likely) of a invasion of US soil by a foreign power we would all be immediatly drafted directly into the military anyway -so it makes the Militias rather pointless, as their would be no one left to serve in one. And again, historically we only fight wars on other countries soil. The last foreign invasion of the Continental US was almost 200 years ago.

There is no such thing as a sneak invasion in this day and age. We have Spies, Satillites, Advanced Rader, a SOSUS network, Recon Aircraft, we would see and deal with any threat long before an invader even saw the US shoreline. Invasions like Barbarossa, Overlord, Inchon, tend to be big, very hard to miss events. Secondly, lets be honest. Lets enact the Red Dawn Scenario for a moment a full scale invasion by a foreign power (say China) takes place. How long do you think these guys would last? This isn't Hollywood, they'd be outgunned, outnumbered, with no reinforcement, no supply, how long do you think they would last?

Against a professional army (with armor, artillary, and air support)? Not 1 minute. And as someone pointed out, some of these guys might have real military experiance, not all, perhaps not even most. I cannot say for sure, but I get the distinct impression that some of these people are 'wannabees'. Playing soldier in the woods is not the same thing as actually serving in the armed forces, and again, they would be facing PROFESSIONAL soldiers. If its the militia vs the invader, my money is on the invader.

Ultimately I don't understand why people whom are interested in the military life just dont join the Army/Army Reserve. Thats what its there for, at least you'll get proper training, and they need people too.

2. To Help People/Disaster Aid? Again Police and Fire Department, FEMA, Volunteer Fire Department, Volenteer Rescue, and about a zillion other organizations, UNICEF, Peace Corps, Red Cross, etc...

Don't get me wrong as long as they dont waste tax dollars, or cause problems (espicially the legal kind), I have no problem with it. I view it like Civil War Reenactment, a hobby, nothing more. Just don't count on these guys to protect us.

All I am saying is if I wanted to protect America during wartime, I would be walking toward a recruitment office, not joining the Militia.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BTW

Can we please erase "Red Dawn", from our memory. That was a 1980's movie, a movie which had BOTH Patrick Sweazy AND Tom Cruise, in it. That's reason enough to dismiss it right off the bat. By the end of movie I was not worried about a communist invasion and terrified about an invasion of Scientology).

I think I am going to start taking Prozac just to annoy them.

I think the point of the Militia is a sort of (forgive me if this sounds offensive) Guerrilla force that can disrupt the invaders in terms of convoys and supply, and they cannot easily be stopped, (assuming the invaders are following the "rules").
And the point about the experience of the militia, well I'm going to refer to a book called "Tomorrow when the war began" its a book aimed at teenagers I think, and it raises points such as, if the invading force were to conquer a country as big as Australia(thats the book), they would need as much man(and woman)power as possible, this would result in large numbers of conscripts and such. And a country as populated and large as the US would need allot of strength to take and hold.

Actually Red Dawn had Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, not Tom Cruise.

As for militia...
Okay so let's just throw the whole "invaded by a foreign power" out the window.


Personally, I'm not all crazy about people who join who never actually served in the real military. I'm in full agreement with Mmarsh here that if you want to serve your country, the real military is where to do it.

However, I CAN see the point of a militia in terms of helping disaster relief etc.
For example, a group of ex-military people might want to use their expertise for emergency rescue and general disaster relief operations but still have their own jobs. I can see how the militia could be like a club of highly trained professionals wanting to still use their skills when need be and still maintain their regular salaries or private businesses.
Also, in the time of need, let's say severe troop shortages etc., ex military people who have kept their skills in the militias can re-enlist. This would be a plus factor. In fact, if they use their militia organization to actually GAIN more qualifications such as expert civilian scuba diver or in fact, learn another language at a pretty high level, while they are civilians, it could be something the US military could work with.
It can also be a place where people who were military can go and keep the skills they learned in the military and practice now and then. Once you learn a skill, it really blows to lose it through lack of practice.

Also, the militia gives the flexibility in that not many people want to bother with the red tape of being involved with regular government agencies or the regular military reserve which work with contracts that could in fact, jack you.

In South Korea there is a sense of a sort of a "militia" in the form of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps Veterans Association. It's not like the VA in the US where it's a government agency, it is an organization run by ex-Marines and features branches all over the world. They regularly work as traffic police near road maintenance works, search and rescue (of all kinds), and sometimes they guard national monuments against protesters.
In the US, most of them are armed.
But they keep their neighborhoods safe, don't tolerate gang activities in their neighborhoods and always work hand in hand with PD.

Militias who are serious might want to follow their lead.

The ones that do piss me off are the ones who want a weekend to play soldiers. Again, wannabes etc. I'm sure they got their own versions of ribbons etc. that they slap on each other... a way of rubbing each other's cocks maybe.

Originally Posted by mmarsh

If its the militia vs the invader, my money is on the invader.

Mujahideen vs. USSR?