View Full Version : Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias
And so it goes...
Richard :munchin
Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias
Time, 29 Sep 2010
Camouflaged and silent, the assault team inched toward a walled stone compound for more than five hours, belly-crawling the last 200 yards. The target was an old state prison in eastern Ohio, and every handpicked member of Red Team 2 knew what was at stake: The year is 2014, and a new breed of neo-Islamic terrorism is rampant in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio ... The current White House Administration is pro-Muslim and has ordered a stand-down against Islamic groups. The mission: Destroy the terrorist command post — or die trying. The fighters must go in "sterile" — without name tags or other identifying insignia — as a deniable covert force. "Anyone who is caught or captured cannot expect extraction," the briefing officer said.
At nightfall the raiders launched their attack. Short, sharp bursts from their M-16s cut down the perimeter guards. Once past the rear gate, the raiders fanned out and emptied clip after clip in a barrage of diversionary fire. As defenders rushed to repel the small team, the main assault force struck from the opposite flank. Red Team 1 burst through a chain-link fence, enveloping the defense in lethal cross fire. The shooting was over in minutes. Thick grenade smoke bloomed over the command post. The defenders were routed, headquarters ablaze.
This August weekend of grueling mock combat, which left some of the men prostrate and bloody-booted, capped a yearlong training regimen of the Ohio Defense Force, a private militia that claims 300 active members statewide. The fighters shot blanks, the better to learn to maneuver in squads, but they buy live ammunition in bulk. Their training — no game, they stress — expends thousands of rounds a year from a bring-your-own armory of deer rifles, assault weapons and, when the owner turns up, a belt-fed M-60 machine gun. The militia trains for ambushes, sniper missions, close-quarters battle and other infantry staples.
What distinguishes groups like this one from a shooting club or re-enactment society is the prospect of actual bloodshed, which many Ohio Defense Force members see as real. Their unit seal depicts a man with a musket and tricorn hat, over the motto "Today's Minutemen." The symbol invites a question, Who are today's redcoats? On that point, the group takes no official position, but many of those interviewed over two days of recent training in and around the abandoned Roseville State Prison near Zanesville voiced grim suspicions about President Obama and the federal government in general.
(cont'd)
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022516,00.html
Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias
Time, 29 Sep 2010
[I]Camouflaged and silent, the assault team inched toward a walled stone compound for more than five hours, belly-crawling the last 200 yards. The target was an old state prison in eastern Ohio, and every handpicked member of Red Team 2 knew what was at stake: The year is 2014, and a new breed of neo-Islamic terrorism is rampant in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio ... The current White House Administration is pro-Muslim and has ordered a stand-down against Islamic groups. The mission: Destroy the terrorist command post — or die trying. The fighters must go in "sterile" — without name tags or other identifying insignia — as a deniable covert force. "Anyone who is caught or captured cannot expect extraction," the briefing officer said.
Did anyone tell these fellows that in the not to distant future ALL the GOOD guys and BAD guys will have gen 16 day-time/night-time infrared & thermal Ipods??? That they can use to download the latest Itunes which include FREE GPS enabled Global Hawks, w/Area Denial Munitions,, all paid for with their Obama Care World Debit Cards???
Additionally,, They are driving up the cost of ammo for us poor suckers that just want to protect our homes... :mad:
I know,, Have a plan..
ZonieDiver
09-30-2010, 12:29
Yeah, but they ARE a hard-core-looking bunch of MF'ers!
Great camo techniques.
I'd sure want to check every magazine and chamber before I "played war" with those steely-eyed killers!
Tough economic times; noted. Divisive weak leader in White House; noted.
But IMHO the short response to the militias: Goonie Goo Goo Gus, Goonie Goo Goo...
or...
The Power of Realistic Thinking
How can we avoid the pitfalls of too much optimism and too much pessimism?
By SHARON ASTYK
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Most of us spend a lot of time exposed to imagined visions of our future. The future in most popular scenarios is progressive: we move forward, solve problems and make things better. In these utopian scenarios, humanity is increasingly perfected through technology, freed from the ordinary burdens of life, and able to focus on things wholly outside ourselves. Reason and the rule of law will ultimately prevail, because the fruits of rationality and order — including science and technology — are key to overcoming obstacles that stand between humankind and a more peaceful, prosperous, and free future.
And, critically, it is assumed that this new, improved world is teleological — that is, that we are headed onward and upward to that goal as a matter of inevitability. Given the trajectory of American history, especially in the 20th century, it’s not hard to see why this vision is so appealing.
There is a mode of thought that runs counter to this, of course. In the dystopian vision of the future, various apocalypses threaten to destroy humanity. The future is a dark and threatening place in which the progress humankind made in more enlightened eras has led, tragically, to its potential destruction. The solutions to problems of an earlier time often turn out to create even worse difficulties.
Environmental dystopians, for example, believe the petroleum that created the modern world, and that dramatically improved the lives of billions, is leading to a planet-wide climatic disaster. Peak oil dystopians contend that petroleum is running out, and our dependence on it will cause a civilizational collapse the likes of which we haven’t seen since the fall of Rome. In these cases, and in all dystopian scenarios, humankind is not freed from its problems — in fact, we may have created them, or made them worse in ways that defy our abilities to control.
Dystopian visions also have a teleology: the conviction that the world is inevitably headed onward and downward into a catastrophic end point. Given the trajectory of all human history, with the rise and fall of empires and civilizations over time, it’s not hard to see why this vision is so compelling.
This division between techno-utopia and apocalypse — a clash of extreme optimism with radical pessimism — is one of the most fundamental difficulties we face as a society. If there’s one thing opposing sides share, it’s a near-absolute faith that their opponents are utter fools who cannot be trusted, and who ought to be ignored. The problem with this either-or scenario is that it posits an all-or-nothing false choice, both of which are disempowering because they undermine our ability to deal realistically with the challenges before us. Without a language to speak of middle grounds, grey areas and real difficulties, we find ourselves struggling to make prudent, sensible adjustments in our way of life.
Without an imaginative framework for considering our future as it is likely to be, we simply don’t. In America of the postwar decades, most of us have enjoyed a holiday from history, liberated by peace and prosperity from overwhelming hardship. The ranks of Americans who lived through the agonies of the Great Depression and World War II grow thinner with each passing day. We Americans who have only known a relatively easy life have forgotten a commonsense historical lesson: That for most people who live a long life, hard times will be part of the bargain.
Our historical amnesia has caused a loss of mature perspective, and the development of a sense that we are entitled to peace and prosperity on our own terms. Consequently, many of us seem to believe that acknowledging the possibility of a diminished standard of living or preparing for less than ideal futures is tantamount to desiring them.
You may be thinking: “We thought the world would end by nuclear war in the Sixties and by Y2K in the late 1990s, but it didn’t — and that means it never will.” This, of course, is extraordinarily poor logic, but many of us accept it. It is only with an extremely short and narrow view of history that we can make any such claim. We certainly can be wrong in our projections of disaster, but we also know, looking back through the long lens, that excessive optimism comes with a heavy price. German Jews in the 1930s who had faith that the civilization they believed in would pull itself back from the brink of madness, and who didn’t drop everything and flee while there was still time, nearly all perished in the Nazi apocalypse.
Does this mean that dystopians, who are at least willing to acknowledge the possibility of long-term decline, are the prudent members of our society? No. Despite what wild-eyed pessimists say, the barbarians are not always at our collective gate. True dark ages are almost as rare as golden ages. By overselling and falsely predicting doomsdays in the past, dystopians — ironically — encourage people to believe that every warning of hard times ahead is groundless alarmism. Among those inclined to credit their dire forecasts are some who, paralyzed by depression and a sense of futility, lose sight of their own capacity for resilience and creative adaptation amid challenging circumstances.
How can we avoid being whipsawed between utopian and dystopian extremes? In the book The Subsistence Perspective, Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen consider the fixity with which many people accept the utopia-dystopia false choice, and how it renders them prostrate with fear. Mies writes about attending a panel with a number of scientists prognosticating a bleak future for the world, and then goes on to answer them: “I looked at the audience: all young people with worried faces. They had come on this Sunday morning to get some orientation from these famous speakers for their own future. But they only painted an apocalyptic picture of gloom and hopelessness. The gist of their presentations was that there was no alternative, that we could do nothing. I could not tolerate this pessimism any longer and said, ‘Please, don’t forget where we are. We are in Trier, in the midst of the ruins of what once was one of the capitals of the Roman empire. An empire whose collapse people then thought would mean the end of the world. But the world did not come to an end with the end of Rome. The plough of my father, a peasant in the Eifel, used to hit the stones of the Roman road that connected Trier with Cologne. On this road where the Roman legions had marched, grass had grown, and now we grew our potatoes on that road.’
I wanted to say that even the collapse of big empires does not mean the end of the world; rather, people then begin to understand what is important in life, namely our subsistence…. The image of my father behind the plough on the old Roman road stands for another philosophy, another logic.”
Here Mies shows us the way out of our dilemma. She claims the sensible middle ground between apocalypse and utopia, and offers us a new way to think about ourselves and the future. The subsistence perspective idea proposes that, in both good times and bad, we should prioritize functioning well and meeting basic needs. It acknowledges that difficult times are part of our lives, but instead of fearing them so deeply that they cannot be spoken of, this view teaches us to see hardship not as paralyzing defeat, but as an opportunity, both individual and communal, to meet the challenges we face with integrity, courage, and faith in the human capacity for adaptation.
In the end, we face neither technological perfection nor the end of the world. There are real and legitimate questions about the future, and how we should best prepare for it. History shows that individuals and societies are capable of being creatively resilient when faced with daunting challenges, and that as William Faulkner put it in his Nobel speech at the dawn of the Cold War and its threat of nuclear Armageddon, armed with hope and courage and an true knowledge of history, “that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.” But we cannot begin to enter our new experience without discarding our false assumptions first.
Sharon Astyk is a writer and farmer in upstate New York. She writes the Casaubon’s Book blog, and is the author of several books on sustainable living.
http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/features/the-power-of-realistic-thinking
bandycpa
09-30-2010, 12:59
The Ohio Defense Force is a "rump militia" (a militia not organized or recognized by the State). The sad part is that groups like these cast a dark shadow on legitimate State Defense Forces. As a part of the Virginia Defense Force, I can tell you that we don't lowcrawl, wear camo makeup, or carry firearms. In fact, we are an *unarmed* force. What we *do* is act as an aid to the National Guard in times of state disaster and emergency, and secure the armories while they are deployed overseas. We train in medical triage, nonlethal crowd control, and communications.
The VDF made up of prior and nonprior service people alike. Our battalion's SGM is a 30 year Air Force Vet, and our S-2 served in the Navy, and our S-3 is former Army. The BTDTs bring an immense amount of experience to the VDF, and the nonpriors (like me) who hang in there learn a little bit about military discipline and courtesies while being able to contribute as a ready volunteer force for our communities and the Commonwealth. As the last hurricane was preparing to go through Virginia, we were put on alert status by Gov McDonnell to assist if we were needed. This is the kind of thing we train for. We do *not* train to overthrow the government.
I'm proud to get to serve in some small capacity, and resent it when the whackos that come out of the woodwork give the rest of us a bad name.
Just my two cents.
Bandy
We train in medical triage, nonlethal crowd control, and communications.
Word scrub,,
Who does the lethal crowd control??
:munchin
bandycpa
09-30-2010, 13:19
Word scrub,,
Who does the lethal crowd control??
:munchin
My apologies. "crowd control using nonlethal force".
Sacamuelas
09-30-2010, 13:23
I'm proud to get to serve in some small capacity, and resent it when the whackos that come out of the woodwork give the rest of us a bad name.
Just my two cents.
Bandy
Sure..... sure.... amazing what the unedited picture showed during my investigation. ;) haha
GreenSalsa
09-30-2010, 13:24
Word scrub,,
Who does the lethal crowd control??
:munchin
MARSOC!
Just Kidding...
bandycpa
09-30-2010, 13:43
Sure..... sure.... amazing what the unedited picture showed during my investigation. ;) haha
That's tremendous! Oddly enough, that was back in the day when I had hair...and was a woman.
Our screening process has changed a lot since then. :D
The Ohio Defense Force is a "rump militia" (a militia not organized or recognized by the State). The sad part is that groups like these cast a dark shadow on legitimate State Defense Forces. As a part of the Virginia Defense Force, I can tell you that we don't lowcrawl, wear camo makeup, or carry firearms. In fact, we are an *unarmed* force. What we *do* is act as an aid to the National Guard in times of state disaster and emergency, and secure the armories while they are deployed overseas. We train in medical triage, nonlethal crowd control, and communications.
The VDF made up of prior and nonprior service people alike. Our battalion's SGM is a 30 year Air Force Vet, and our S-2 served in the Navy, and our S-3 is former Army. The BTDTs bring an immense amount of experience to the VDF, and the nonpriors (like me) who hang in there learn a little bit about military discipline and courtesies while being able to contribute as a ready volunteer force for our communities and the Commonwealth. As the last hurricane was preparing to go through Virginia, we were put on alert status by Gov McDonnell to assist if we were needed. This is the kind of thing we train for. We do *not* train to overthrow the government.
I'm proud to get to serve in some small capacity, and resent it when the whackos that come out of the woodwork give the rest of us a bad name.
Just my two cents.
Bandy
Bandy, mi amigo, Very Well Said!!!!!
Holly:munchin
I actually chatted with the photographer Ty Cecak while I was doing my own recon, Ty said he was interested in portraying the other side of the story.
Right! Time was drumming up some BS on the Evil Militias, it will surely get SPLC some additional grants and let Holder and Napolitano make themselves look useful.
The Militia threat is a f-ing joke, but they are easy exploited for distraction.
mojaveman
09-30-2010, 22:14
That was very true what they said about the "lone wolves". When you work by yourself you can keep a lot of secrets. ;)
That was very true what they said about the "lone wolfs". When you work by yourself you can keep a lot secrets. ;)
There is nothing like hiding in plain sight, which is the reason much of the attention on the Militias is a farce.....they parade around in camo, openly discuss 'their' operations and stick out like a sore thumb.
5 average joes in street clothes target shooting in a field doesn't draw near as much attention as 5 guys target shooting in full camo :D
Your going to have Lone Wolves (Charles Whitman, John Hinkley, etc.) with or without a Militia.
I worry less about Lone Wolves and more about the few mentally ill individuals, agitators to be precise, like Jim Stachowaik that should have been put to bed long ago. But they have been allowed to roam freely and they continue to entice others to pull the trigger.