Fort Dix terror target?

[Flying Pig]

Targeting CAP  and or ROTC makes perfect sense.  Terrorists get a great effect when they blow up unarmed civilians.  Not to mention kids who aspire to be soldiers one day.  I can gaurantee these arent the only guys in the US who are/were planning this. If not, there will be some other nut case who will pick up the cause.

As far as the Coast Guard.  When I was in the Marines (pre-911) the going joke was that if you really wanted to shoot automatic weapons at someone, you shoulda joined the Coast Guard.   They have a very convicing way of stopping drug boats.

For the most part though, in the US, people on base dont walk around with loaded weapons.  Sure you have the MP's, but thats about it.  Well, until now.

[DNall]

I can see terrorists looking at people in uniform & thinking easy target, and attractive one with the real mil on higher alert. If the CG is a target than everyone is. The problem is I just don't think CAP officers have the training to address force protection. I think maybe some stuff needs to be added to our PD program at the varrious levels. I don't think CAP or similiar orgs need to overreact, but I do think you need to be aware, on guard, and vigilant.

Politics aside, 9/11 was a symbolic strike at the govt/policy making, military, & financial centers of the US. It was symbolic & had very little to do with how many were killed or how much damage was done, that was just bonus on their part.

The current mindset is to bleed the US in any way possible to destroy public support for foreign action. If that's killing soldiers in a war zone then they'll kill lots of them, if it's blowing up daycare centers in mid-America then they'll do that too. They'll do anything they believe will create the desired feeling of defeat while not reinvigorating the public to fight back. That's why troops on US soil are valid targets & daycares aren't, and why you'll see them talking all about get out of Iraq & stop your imperialist intentions to conquer the land of islam & make us all christians. If in their mind your people are a target that will deliver the right PR message on American TV, or appears to them in some way to be, then you should be aware & prepared.

[JohnKachenmeister]

Like I said in an earlier thread.  Force Protection in CAP is the elephant in the room.  Nobody wants to talk about it, but the elephant is not going away just because we ignore him.

There are two kinds of Force Protection actions:  Passive measures, designed to make intel gathering and access difficult for our enemy, and Active measures, designed to resist and eliminate threat forces.

There are no legal restrictions on use of passive methods.  I suggested some passive measures earlier on this thread.  Right now, I don't think that there has been a comprehensive legal review of the possible active measures we can take to protect our people and our stuff.  We need to get all them CAP lawyer types off the golf course and on the job.

[DNall]

second

[sandman]

Remember that Corpsmen and Medics are in the business of saving lives too, and  the enemy knows that if he uses that big red X as a target, he will not only cause a single injury but prevent that man from saving people who may get back in the fight, demoralize the troops who depend on that corpsman, and score a tactical and strategic point for his side by removing a force multiplier.

In WWII German Officers court martialed Wehrmacht Soldiers accused of shooting medics. The US Army did the same, though I highly doubt the Japanese at the time we so civilized.
Why cant we go back to the Cold War?

Between you and me, the cold war has not ended. Strategy and tactics have only shifted in paradigm...
If the jihadists have secured any type of nuclear device, you can rest assured that it filtered through places like Iran but have russian cyrillic stamped on it somewhere, just my thought...

[LTC_Gadget]

you can rest assured that it filtered through places like Iran but have russian cyrillic stamped on it somewhere, just my thought...

I remember reading an article just after the dissolution of the USSR detailing how many pieces of military hardware, and a lot of military (and intelligence community) information came up for sale because of the fact that a lot of high-ranking military figures were suddenly unemployed or without as certain a retirement plan.  There's certainly a healthy quantity of military uniform 'bling' that still shows up on ebay and other websites for sale. 

The *other* scary thing about the dissolution of the USSR, is that we went from one, *known* individual with the power to hit his little red button, to *several* not-well-known individuals with the power to hit their own little red buttons, and not all of them are as reasoned or tempered as even that one person used to be.  Tell me again why things are supposedly better??  Either way you look at it, it's still relative degrees of spine-tingling fear. There are some scary little tin-pot dictators out there.  And remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get you...

V/R,

[ddelaney103]

The *other* scary thing about the dissolution of the USSR, is that we went from one, *known* individual with the power to hit his little red button, to *several* not-well-known individuals with the power to hit their own little red buttons, and not all of them are as reasoned or tempered as even that one person used to be.  Tell me again why things are supposedly better??

Oooh, oooh I know!

Because we're not as likely to end all human life on the planet?

People tend to forget how close we came to "Nukuler combat, toe to toe with the Rooskies."  Cuba and Able Archer 83 were both much closer than anyone would like.

At the risk of sounding like Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson, nowadays we only have to worry about one nuke, maybe a handful from the DPRK.  That's nothing like what we'd do to the Earth if we'd turn the keys on the SIOP, much less a Soviet response.

[LTC_Gadget]

Well, my basic point was just that we traded one "commie" with his finger on *the* button for *several* "wingnuts" with their fingers on their own buttons; and more lax security measures.. But we don't have to digress on that tangent here.. Thassall..

V/R,

[wingnut]

Oh yes Baby DUCK AND COVER, and my favorite one is Slim Pickens riding the Nuke down. Yes the Cold War, at least we had a Boogy Man, now its no fun. Every one is a Boogy Man.

Anyone see Team America, World Police??

[MIKE]

Anyone see Team America, World Police??

Yes, I've even seen a website that sells t-shirts that read "durka, durka, durka" in Arabic