Originally posted by Lavan
I understand what you\'re trying to say, but I still think there\'s a fundamental difference between trained army ground troops who would be equipped with tanks, heavy artillery, mortars etc. and the general populace armed with puny handguns. Soldiers don\'t go to boot camp and learn to operate army weaponry for nothing, not to mention the ground troops would be taking part in coordinated strategic maneuvers on the ground.
There is a difference, a very large difference. However a bullet will kill a seasoned troop just as well as it will kill a civilian. If even one enemy soldier get\'s killed in a minor uprising, then that\'s one less enemy soldier to oppose our military... one less trained soldier who\'s good at what he does.. killing our troops. Now of course the average Joe citizen would be at a disadvantage against seasoned troops.. but the nation would not. Aside from the hardware, an invading military force would send over 1 to 2 million troops at the most (No country has over 2 million soldiers AFAIK). Now that sounds like a lot, but it\'s no match for half a billion armed citizens.
You also have to remember that Tanks, Planes, Subs, and Troops can\'t fight indefinately. If the public has the means to help the military to disrupt supply lines, then those Tanks, Planes, and Subs will have no way to get a relable source for food, fuel, or ammunition.
But perhaps being untrained is an advantage in it\'s self. While the military would move in plattons and flanks.. citizens would be scattered, making it very difficult to locate and destory opposition. A good example of this is again in WWII. Durring the D-Day invasion, the American and British troops flew into France upon gliders and parachuted down. However severe miscalculations and agressive enemy artillary caused our troops to spread across a wide area behind enemy lines rather than in a tight formation like originally planned. It was a complete mistake that ended up winning the day since scattered troops could hit enemy positions and run without revealing the location of every other troop in the platoon. Now compair that scenario against the troops who landed on Normandy in HigginsBoats, best depicted in the first 15 minuites of Speilburg\'s "Saving Private Ryan".
That\'s the kind of warfare I\'m talking about. If our citizens lined up in the streets awaiting the enemy, of course they\'d be massacred. But if they used their homes, buisnesses, sewers, parks, and other hiding spots to fire from at a distance and run.. and if they were disorginized enough to keep the rain of bullets comming at any time from any direction, there\'s not much opposing ground forces could do to stop them.
Remember also that the armed US citizens who helped the Continental Army fight off the British durring the Reveloutionary War were nothing more than Farmers, Bankers, StoreKeeps, and often times children who had nothing more than a rusty musket and a pair of swift legs. The Brittish on the other hand had experienced soldiers, an extreemly powerful Navy, cannons, and bombs.
In the face of two wars with the Brittish, a war with the French, a war with the Spanish, and an entire nation full of hostile natives who wanted to stop the white man\'s westward expansion, The United States grew from a meer 13 sparcely populated colonies along the eastern seaboard into the nation we know today. I don\'t think we could have survived without an armed population. Despite this peace, we still live in an unstable world, and are by no means removed from the threat of attack or invasion. I would rather be prepared for the worst, than allow ourselves to loose a major tactical advantage just because a small percentage of ***holes can\'t learn the difference between wrong and right.
