February 20, 2009
What're they thinking in the Iowa National Guard?
Did you ever get the feeling that there's more going on than meets the eye? That you're not getting the whole story?
Check out this report from Carroll, Iowa, Daily Times Herald and see if you don't feel vaguely unsettled after reading it.
Guardsmen to conduct urban training at Arcadia in April
The Carroll National Guard unit will train on urban military operations by holding a four-day exercise at Arcadia.
The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company.
Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate.
Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the weapons dealer.
The primary phase will be done Saturday, April 4, when convoys will be deployed from Carroll to Arcadia. Pictures of the arms dealer will be shown in Arcadia, and soldiers will go door to door asking if residents have seen the suspect.
Soldiers will knock only at households that have agreed to participate in the drill, Kots noted.
"Once credible intelligence has been gathered," said Kots, "portions of the town will be road-blocked and more in-depth searches of homes and vehicles will be conducted in accordance with the residents' wishes.
"One of the techniques we use in today's political environment is cordon and knock," Kots explained. "We ask for the head of the household, get permission to search, then have them open doors and cupboards. The homeowner maintains control. We peer over their shoulder, and the soldier uses the homeowner's body language and position to protect him."
During this phase of the operation, troops will interact with residents and media while implementing crowd-control measures and possibly treating and evacuating injured persons.
The unit will use a Blackhawk helicopter for overhead command and control, and to simulate medevacs.
[...]
In addition to surveillance, searching and apprehension, the exercise will also give the troops valuable experience in stability, support, patrol, traffic control, vehicle searches and other skills needed for deployment in an urban environment.
"This exercise will improve the real-life operational skills of the unit," said Kots. "And it will hopefully improve the public's understanding of military operations."
The pre-drill work with residents is as important at the drill itself.
"It will be important for us to gain the trust and confidence of the residents of Arcadia," said Kots. "We will need to identify individuals that are willing to assist us in training by allowing us to search their homes and vehicles and to participate in role-playing."
"We really want to get as much information out there as possible, because this operation could be pretty intrusive to the people of Arcadia."
Outdoor Channel host Michael Blane says he can't imagine a situation requiring the National Guard -- and not local law enforcement -- to seek out and arrest an illegal weapons dealer. Bane also notes that the Guardsmen will be asking residents to open cupboards for inspection.
Why would they do that if they were looking for a person? Bane points out that it's as if the troops aren't looking for a person, so much as they're looking for contraband that will fit in small places.
Guns, maybe?
I suppose that some people will say that this is a reasonable way to prepare the troops to conduct urban operations overseas, but I'm skeptical, especially given the stated scenario for the exercise.
Strange, very strange.
Posted by Mike Lief at February 20, 2009 10:07 PM
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Comments
I also understand troops are training to actually kill people, using various kinds of weapons. Scary! Oh--and those pilots learning to fly aerial reconnaissance missions? They might be looking into our backyards! In addition, I hear there are troops training how to administer medical treatments. They're probably really learning how to do medical experiments on civilians! I better keep my curtains drawn.
Posted by: LT at February 21, 2009 04:37 PM
Even paranoids have enemies.
Posted by: The Little Coach at February 21, 2009 11:26 PM
another really super-convenient aspect of these exercises is that when the command orders the boys to storm into american homes; freeze those american homeowners at gunpoint; and ransack those homes looking for whatever they choose to define as 'contraband' - in new orleans, after katrina, they took everyone's guns away, as you'll recall - why then it'll be no problem at all. the soldiers will just think, "this is just like we trained for!"
and if they have to shoot some american homeowners to make the point, well, those scumbags should have unquestioningly supported the troops. so really, it'll be their own fault.
how is this all that different from the glory days of the a-bomb tests in the '50's? when our brave military told the western ranchers that whatever was wrong with their sheep/cattle, "it sure wasn't radiation poisoning! so you can go right ahead and eat them and drink the milk from those perfectly healthy animals!"
i respect the military as much as the next guy, but never for one second think they won't fire on unarmed US civilians if they're ordered to. (there's a photo on 'shorpy' - the old photo website - of a company of troops setting up a crowd control barrier right in the middle of a NYC street in 1918. a quadrant of troops facing outward, rifles aimed at the crowd; belt-fed machine guns on the corners.) mere civilians can't be expected to understand the complexities of national security. and ya gotta break some eggs to make an omelette.
Posted by: ici chacal at February 23, 2009 09:01 AM