I'm still stuck on the statistics, and trying to figure out how 250,000 Wisconsin bow hunters, and the large number of gun hunters over age 60 and under age 15, deserve to get translated into comparisons against standing armies numbering in the millions in the US and China. Yes, I've seen Red Dawn several times, but I'm not quite sure the "Wolverines" would be as effective as portrayed.
However, I do buy the decentralized-vs-centralized argument, and agree that citizen armies like the Swiss are far more effective deterrents to conquest than things like the Iraqi "Republican Guard". (See Afghan tribal forces for an effective case in point).
The wild card in all of this are mass-scale armaments beyond the reach of individual citizen soldiers, such as nuclear arms, that can goad unscrupulous and power-mad despots into unfortunate military strategies. (See North Korea for a possible effective case in point). Democratic weaponry in the age of the atom and the spy satellite is of questionable reliability to preserve a way of life.
I'm still stuck on the statistics, and trying to figure out how 250,000 Wisconsin bow hunters, and the large number of gun hunters over age 60 and under age 15, deserve to get translated into comparisons against standing armies numbering in the millions in the US and China. Yes, I've seen Red Dawn several times, but I'm not quite sure the "Wolverines" would be as effective as portrayed.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do buy the decentralized-vs-centralized argument, and agree that citizen armies like the Swiss are far more effective deterrents to conquest than things like the Iraqi "Republican Guard". (See Afghan tribal forces for an effective case in point).
The wild card in all of this are mass-scale armaments beyond the reach of individual citizen soldiers, such as nuclear arms, that can goad unscrupulous and power-mad despots into unfortunate military strategies. (See North Korea for a possible effective case in point). Democratic weaponry in the age of the atom and the spy satellite is of questionable reliability to preserve a way of life.