NY Times - The Coming Swarm - op ed piece

[1776 Rebel]

I thought I had seen a post on this op ed piece in the Times but for the life of me I can't find it. So forgive me for posting double if it is out there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15arquilla.html?scp=1&sq=swarm&st=cse

I read this article on Mumbai type attacks in the US and responded by writing a letter to the editor. I thought it was a pithy bit of word smithing. Of course it wasn't published. Matter of fact no letters were published for this article. The same day an opinion piece on gays in the military was published. Multiple letters were published on that. Oh well...it is the Times. The following is what I sent to the Times....

"The Coming Swarm" warns Americans to "brace" themselves for terrorist strikes of small operational units. Shopping malls, office buildings etc are the potential target venues for these deviant actors. The author poses that the local police are the first line of defense against such attacks. The Pentagon needs to post active military across the land.

I fear that the author has missed the point. It is you and I, fellow citizens that will be the first to encounter these terror makers. But in America, as opposed to the sited nations in the article, mere citizens are allowed to possess and bear arms. In countless daily encounters across this country, law abiding armed citizens act when threatened and defend life and property. It is no different in this case. Instead of delegating our safety to others, it is the armed American in some nameless city, town or hamlet that will first come face to face with such evil. We must recognize and support those who choose to be armed among us.

[Bill Stryker]

1776,

Good post. Thanks.

I for one am, like the founders, wary of posting federal forces all around the country.

The author of the OpEd, [John Arquilla teaches in the special operations program at the Naval Postgraduate School and is the author of “Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military.”] can be forgiven for being in the Naval forces. But it sounds like he is proposing using special forces tactics against his own country. Now, I know he is well meaning and talking about the terrorists, but I do not think a president -- or governor -- would not be tempted to use these forces against domestic dissent. After all LBJ, with the help of Bill Moyers, used the FBI against domestic enemies -- as did several other presidents of more recent memory -- can you say Bill Clinton?

I liked your letter. I am not surprised the Times would not publish it. It is not PC in New York to support the Second Amendment.

[2HOW]

Good post ,,so true

[runstowin]

You're right, even if it were possible to  "post" police and federal troops all over the place, it would be highly oppressive.