11-28-2013, 04:48 PM
The US is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of arms to other nations, no competition, plus we have the two best defense forces in the world:
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Complacency has been in our National psyche because of this dating back well over a century. I think once we defeated the world's largest and most powerful empire twice, people realized that there was no gain in messing with the newly-formed United States with overt military power. Then we took Mexico's territory, spread West, and gained control of the entire Gulf Coast Region, from Southern Texas to New Orleans, and the Pacific Coast from San Diego to the Puget Sound.
We don't have the same sense that other nations do, that at any given time, their neighbors can become belligerent, and make life difficult for them in a quest for competing interests in critical natural resources in their region, or worse.
When we talk about US defense, we are really talking about defense and pursuit of our interests overseas, since we inherited the policing of the global trade routes from the British, who were a shadow of their former selves after the two Great World Wars, where they were bailed out by their former escaped colonists from the US.
As we further our interests abroad, regional factions who seek to hamper our hegemony on power projection realize that their only means of combating the US Military might involves leveraging asymmetric tactics against ungainly conventional forces.
Prime examples:
* Small motorboat laden with explosives vs. huge US Destroyer, using deception and audacity in their approach (USS Cole)
* Small suicide teams of insurgent sappers infiltrate Camp Bastion USMC Harrier base in Afghanistan, destroying 6 and damaging 2, using deception by wearing US Army Uniforms.
* Using the ruse of wanting to inform amateur CIA officers, a high-value informant who was really a double agent wore a suicide vest when he was allowed into a CIA Forward Operating Base (Chapman) in Afghanistan, killing 8 CIA officers and contractors.
You won't find any stories where companies or battalions of enemy are assaulting US and Coalition Forces. You can look all the way back to Vietnam and find scores of similar stories.
* Tet 1968: A small VC Sapper team infiltrates the US Embassy in Saigon with Satchel charges and small arms, causing chaos for several hours. The operation is an utter tactical failure, but one of the most important strategic successes in the history of warfare, because cameras were rolling, and the communists had a huge following in the US media. It appeared that the enemy was able to easily overrun and take the US Embassy, deep in the Capitol of South Vietnam. This demoralized the populace back in the US, causing massive political pressure to pull out from the War.
What does this have to do with small arms? Every one of these incidents was an intelligence failure. The Pentagon could care less about these types of incidents, as long as trillions are flowing into conventional, big ticket projects.
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Complacency has been in our National psyche because of this dating back well over a century. I think once we defeated the world's largest and most powerful empire twice, people realized that there was no gain in messing with the newly-formed United States with overt military power. Then we took Mexico's territory, spread West, and gained control of the entire Gulf Coast Region, from Southern Texas to New Orleans, and the Pacific Coast from San Diego to the Puget Sound.
We don't have the same sense that other nations do, that at any given time, their neighbors can become belligerent, and make life difficult for them in a quest for competing interests in critical natural resources in their region, or worse.
When we talk about US defense, we are really talking about defense and pursuit of our interests overseas, since we inherited the policing of the global trade routes from the British, who were a shadow of their former selves after the two Great World Wars, where they were bailed out by their former escaped colonists from the US.
As we further our interests abroad, regional factions who seek to hamper our hegemony on power projection realize that their only means of combating the US Military might involves leveraging asymmetric tactics against ungainly conventional forces.
Prime examples:
* Small motorboat laden with explosives vs. huge US Destroyer, using deception and audacity in their approach (USS Cole)
* Small suicide teams of insurgent sappers infiltrate Camp Bastion USMC Harrier base in Afghanistan, destroying 6 and damaging 2, using deception by wearing US Army Uniforms.
* Using the ruse of wanting to inform amateur CIA officers, a high-value informant who was really a double agent wore a suicide vest when he was allowed into a CIA Forward Operating Base (Chapman) in Afghanistan, killing 8 CIA officers and contractors.
You won't find any stories where companies or battalions of enemy are assaulting US and Coalition Forces. You can look all the way back to Vietnam and find scores of similar stories.
* Tet 1968: A small VC Sapper team infiltrates the US Embassy in Saigon with Satchel charges and small arms, causing chaos for several hours. The operation is an utter tactical failure, but one of the most important strategic successes in the history of warfare, because cameras were rolling, and the communists had a huge following in the US media. It appeared that the enemy was able to easily overrun and take the US Embassy, deep in the Capitol of South Vietnam. This demoralized the populace back in the US, causing massive political pressure to pull out from the War.
What does this have to do with small arms? Every one of these incidents was an intelligence failure. The Pentagon could care less about these types of incidents, as long as trillions are flowing into conventional, big ticket projects.