As US troops left Iraq, their combat gear went to police
The troop withdrawal created a ton of surplus armament. Through the so-called “1033 program,” police departments can acquire excess military gear from the Pentagon for free.
Source: https://www.stephensemler.com/p/how-the-iraq-war-turbocharged-police
So this guy has been getting a lot of traction lately because they basically predicted not only that the US would attack Iran, but also the specific mechanism which would cause it to happen.
I linked to the next video in the series and I think it's worth watching, especially in the context of the above figure. I think the professor is pretty cherry picked in their examples and what they choose to bring forwards as data and evidence, however, their opinion on why Putin is doing what they are doing is especially worth considering. Effectively, the professor argued, Putin is trying to use a constant state of war to reshape the Russian self image into that if a warrior nation. You can agree or disagree with the professor, which is neither here nor there.
However, and this is why is sat their examples are cherry picked, let's look at the parallels to the US with regards to using war to transform a people. I think the above point highlights the issue excellently, and those who can remember a time before 9-11 can attest. The US people changed after the war on terror; or perhaps, had change thrust upon them by a government interested in cultivating a police state style authoritarianism.
Before 9-11, maybe a few police forces has something akin to a special SWAT unit. It was headline news if they were ever utilized. Now every small town practically has a bearcat, and through the use of copaganda, the oppression of citizens with no due process and no probable cause is practically the point of one lice forces. Forces within the US used militarism, they used the war on terror to subvert the US constitution in a multi decade process to convert local police into military forces, which can easily be swept under federal control.
So when we criticize Putin for using war to remake the identity of a nation throughout the war, we should at least be consistent and consider how the US identity was remade through war. These p organs are the kinds of slippery slopes that those interested in bipartisanship committed us to over the previous two and a half decades.
Effectively, the professor argued, Putin is trying to use a constant state of war to reshape the Russian self image into that if a warrior nation.
Hard epic fail. Over 1 million russian casualties. Tank reserves mostly depleated. Huge losses of military vehicles and gear.
If anything, I'd say russia has proved that they aren't even a country. They're a gas station with nukes that may or may not work.
I checked it out and his conclusions are idiotic. He's saying Russian demography is bad because of no democracy lmao. But most EU and US are below replacement levels, the only reason this is not visible in US - immigration.
Well yea, but you can buy a semi-automatic riffle on walmart and legally own a bump that makes that automatic…
I may be too european, but cops are not bastards here in Hungary…
I may be too European but cops are not bastards
It is different in the vast majority of of the EU, true.
here in Hungary
Aren't they Orban's removed? Genuine question. I have seen examples where they definitely have been.
ACAB, but some are more bastarts than others.
I would really disagree, I haven’t the faintest clue whats its like in the US but as someone of gypsy descent and as someone who grew up in a soviet era 10 story building I have never had a singular bad experience with them!
ACAB is a very good slogan, but only if we understand it.
It's very specifically referring to cops like the American police system, not the concept of policing. Community policing and ensuring people are safe and have someone to help them in emergencies is a good thing, community policing makes community livable, it's a basic feature of society.
Cops in America trace their roots to violent thugs who were paid by wealth slavers to return their slaves. Their job is literally to protect the property of the rich, not to protect or serve the community as they claim.
Wal-Mart does not sell guns for the most part anymore.
Mine does, redneck town, but it's all hunting style rifles and shotguns, nothing tacticool. I won't buy from big corpo, too big a pain. I just use guns.com for the most part.
Nah dawg, they only sell pellet guns, long-barrel rifles, and shotguns at Wal-Mart, but I get your point. I'll just say, it may be important over here to own those semi-automatic death makers when SHTF.
But what sort of shit would hit the fan? I really don’t want to be an asshole, but one of the reasons I heard ‘to protect your rights’ but how? Like an armed militia against the government? If all is in favor ag the gov, then there is no need for bloodshed; and if none but your cause is just then history would would honor it without bloodshed
The other thing I heard is self defense… But like if none one had guns, would you need guns to defend yourself?
soon patriot missile systems will be the only way to keep the local police safe
MRAPs are cramped inside and have shit visibility, but they look tacticool so these chucklefucks will mount up every chance they get, just to sit outside a school and jerk each other off under the camo while kids are getting shot.
ACAB
I got some stuff that was meant to go to Afghanistan through Pakistan. Some containers get stolen after they port in Karachi and the stuff gets sold around. NATO containers fkr the us military there.
Still have some of that stuff. Surprisingly unseedy place.
Only tangentially related but had to mention it.
Hey, remember when Bush was 100% certain that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction", and then USA swept in, and reported back "Well, we killed Sadam, took over the region, opened a power vacume that allowed the formation of ISIS, and the rise of power of the taliban, and all in the name of finding nukes? Yeah.....they didn't have them. Whoopsie doodles!"
Remember that?
Yeah. Found where they went. This guy has them.
Gotta be careful not to link correlation with causation here. Could just be that vendors started selling to cops a lot more in the 2010s for different reasons.
According to the graph there were fewer US troops deployed in Iraq during the last years of Obama's presidency than there are now.
So Bush started the war in Iraq and Obama ended the war in Iraq?
Sorry, but this graph just doesn't fit with the both sides forever war narrative.
I was deployed to Iraq in 2010, the mission at that time was changed and called "Operation New Dawn" this was Obama's drawdown of forces. The base I was on had one more deployment after us then it was turned over to Iraqi forces and we pulled out, mostly.
In the Bible and at the end of the Cold War, the motto was: swords into plowshares.
Who is the oil in Iraq privatised to which companies? What currency is the oil in Iraq sold in?