Wednesday, July 20, 2005



US - US troops are pulling out of the North East, not of Iraq (yet anyway) but of the United States. In an effort to consolidate their forces and save money the Pentagon has announced a new wave of proposed base closings which will include numerous bases in Maine and Connecticut. States throughout the country have already felt the loss of National Guard soldiers who where they not overseas would be available for domestic disaster relief work and providing auxiliary fire and manpower to local police when needed. If a major crisis arose on the home front many doubt the guard would have the capability to adequately address it. Due to mounting casualties and series shortfalls in new recruits and re-enlistments the National Guard like the rest of the armed forces is spread dangerously thin across multiple fronts.

A major crisis for the Guard could come in the form of a large scale civil disturbance like the 1992 L.A. riots in which the National Guard was needed to put down days of rioting and outraged after Los Angeles Police Officers were cleared of any wrongdoing for the brutal beating of black motorist Rodney King. Both the temperature and tensions are high in the city following the recent deadly shooting of a 19-month-old girl at the hands of the LAPD. Many people have been drawing parallels between the current atmosphere and that which preceded the 1992 as well as the 1965 Watts riot. Anarchists and other insurrectionary minded individuals are looking forward to such a situation arising which they could exploit and take part in as they have in similar past uprising like the Cincinnati one of 2001.