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.
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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.