Salinas Nortenos gang membersMy thanks to Richard M. for forwarding this. It is important. I will make an exception to the current rules and post comments for this. Oh, and tell me again what a boon open borders and illegals are to this nation.
Mike
III
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/lind/2009/11/on-war-323-milestone.html
11/24/2009
ON WAR #323: Milestone
William S. Lind
23 November 2009
One of the ongoing themes of this column has been gangs and the role they play in a Fourth Generation world. Here in the United States they already serve as an alternative primary loyalty (alternative to the state) for many urban young men.
Gangs will likely be a major player in 4GW because gang members are expected to fight. Those who won’t do not remain gang members.
The November 15 Washington Post had a story about gangs in Salinas, California, that deserves close attention from 4GW theorists. Salinas is reportedly overrun with Hispanic gangs. The Post wrote that its homicide rate is three times that of Los Angeles. It quoted a Salinas police officer, Sgt. Mark Lazzarini, on one of the classic results of state breakdown, chaos:
“Only half of our gangs are structured; the Norteños,” he said. “The southerners are completely unstructured. Half of our violence is kids who get into a car and go out and hunt. These kids don’t know their victims. How do you stop that? It’s very chaotic.”
Salinas’s new slogan might be, “Salinas: where even the lettuce has tattoos.”
But what is interesting in the Post’s article is not the gangs themselves. It is a new response to the gangs. Salinas has brought in the U.S. military to apply counter-insurgency doctrine to a situation on American soil. The Post reports that:
Since February combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been advising Salinas police on counterinsurgency doctrine, bringing lessons from the battlefield to the meanest streets in an American city…
“It’s a little laboratory,” said retired Col. Hy Rothstein, the former Army career officer in Special Forces who heads the team of 15 faculty members and students (from the Naval Postgraduate School), mostly naval officers…
Rothstein…notes the “significant overlap with how you deal with insurgencies and how you deal with cities that are under siege from gangs.”…
Leonard A. Ferrari, provost of the naval Postgraduate School, embraced the project from the start, hearing…an opportunity for a school “in transition from just a defense institution to a national homeland and even a human security institution.”…
“The idea was, not just Salinas,” Ferrari said, “but is there a national model for this”
From the perspective of 4GW theory, this is an important development. The Naval Postgraduate School is a DOD institution, part of the U.S. government. Its involvement in Salinas marks the federal government’s formal recognition of Fourth Generation war on American soil, and the need for a “national model” to counteract it. If we must involve the U.S. military to lead counterinsurgency efforts in American cities, then it is difficult to deny that we face something like insurgencies in those same cities. Again, the significance is that this is now formally admitted by the U.S. government, not merely noted by “outside the beltway” observers of 4GW.
The U.S. military officers advising Salinas on how to wage an anti-gang counterinsurgency are doing so as volunteers, according to the Post, to avoid Constitutional issues. But the camel’s nose is obviously inside the tent. Many wars have begun by sending “volunteers.” If, as likely, the volunteers prove insufficient, regular troops will follow.
As someone who believes in a strictly limited federal government, the government envisioned by our Founders, I find this troubling. But from a 4GW perspective, I also know it is inevitable. As I have said time and again, the main Fourth Generation threat we will face will be on our own soil, not halfway around the world, where we are currently pouring our strength out into the sand. We will come to regret that waste bitterly.
Objectively, what the Washington Post has reported is a milestone, to be neither praised nor regretted but merely noted. It denotes another step toward 4GW here at home. It is a step we cannot avoid. As both imported and domestically-generated Fourth Generation entities ramp up their warfare on American soil, the U.S. military will be drawn in. As is the case in 4GW overseas, it will probably fail. Old Uncle Karl was right: the state will wither away. But what follows will not be communism. It will be chaos.
Note: Regrettably, the d-n-i website, which had become the worldwide “go to” forum on 4GW, is shutting down. It is a major loss. Fortunately, John Robb has agreed to carry all my columns on his website, Global Guerrillas. All my archived columns will also be moved there from d-n-i, as will the important K.u.K Austro-Hungarian field manuals on Fourth Generation war.
William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is Director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation
16 comments:
These are disturbing developments, but it is also good to take Lind with a grain of salt (I remember his dire predictions on the eve of the invasion of Iraq - predicting a Stalingrad in Baghdad. Didn't happen. Turns out most Iraqis did not see opposing the American invasion as some desperate national fight for survival, demanding they fight to the last man, woman, and child. They just got out of the way and let the Americans take out the asshole Saddam and his cronies.
Lind may be right about Iraq in the long run, but that is more to do with the inherent failure of most occupations than with anything particular to our age).
Rather than the grim, inevitable slouching toward Mad Max that Lind envisions, there are other possible outcomes. I can think of at least two:
1. A devolution not all the way to anarchy but back to truly sovereign states or republics, as in "the sovereign Republic of Texas" or "the sovereign state of Montana" where people can both vote with their feet and circle the wagons and man the barricades at the state borders when necessary. I kinda doubt some gang(s) will be able to run rough-shod over such truly sovereign states made up of no-nonsense people who understand their obligations of mutual defense (which tend to congregate in certain states).
2. But there is also the possibility that Lind is right in the sense that the states are now too weak, and too much mere subsets of the failing nation state, to keep us from going all the way to anarchy. But depending on where you are, that anarchy may not end up like Mad Max with the gangs raping and pillaging at will. It may take on a form more like the Scottish Clans in some parts of the country (or some other form of resilient community), with regional alliances among "clans" or city-states taking shape for mutual defense. Again, people in more hearty regions will have the capacity to at least militarily defeat any such gangs. Even if the nominal states no longer exist, I kinda doubt MS-13 would fair very well trying to invade the more open terrain we now know of as Montana or Wyoming, for example, against country folks armed with flat shooting, long range scoped .270 and 30/06 rifles, fighting on their own plains, mountains, and forests. My bet's on the country folks in that one, state or no state.
Of course, what would cut all this off (the false choice between Mad Max and the uber-police/military state) would be a revitalization of the real citizens militia, post haste. But, ironically, that likely will not happen unless/until at least one brave state REALLY reasserts its sovereignty (perhaps to the point of secession) or until the nation state withers away enough for the smaller state units to have enough default autonomy to finally revitalize their militias (presuming they have people fit to serve in a militia).
We'll see, but what happens in Californication is not necessarily going to happen elsewhere.
However it pans out, is is surely time to get to high ground (pick your ground now, and get you and yours there), get to know your neighbors, get your local community squared away, and work to establish a real state militia or state defense force with real military capability.
HPL
A perfect example of why the "militia of the several States" needs to be revitalized...and not under USC 10, Pt 311, either...
Cut off the fuel source of welfare, and the gang fire in the cities goes out. Convince the victims to shoot back and it goes out faster.
Why is Lind believing a police officer filtered through a newspaper? Neither one is known for speaking the whole truth. Wouldn't this story be better spun as: "New World Order uses real gang violence problem as a pretext to explore military occupation of American cities"?
"Oh, and tell me again what a boon open borders and illegals are to this nation."
Darwinism shows us there is no single strategy, personality, or genetics that produces the best outcomes against all challenges at all times and places. Diversity of race, culture, and religion in the US is a strength for the same reason that monoculture is a weakness in agriculture. Maybe you white, working class folks with faith in constitutions will be wiped out by your vulnerability to Socialism, to be survived by the Hispanics who are loyal to family and tribe.
I've read that the gangs are sending folks into the military for training and learning tactics.
I think the gangs on American streets will be a tougher fight than insurgents in iraq.
half (UK)
Now what was it I posted a while back about ethnic gangs in a post-collapse scenario? Regardless, all the hand-wringing about racism will soon be a moot point when the color of one's skin will probably be the primary factor in determining where one can and cannot go.
Regardless of the civilized facade that we try so hard to maintain, we're all just savages inside, and we will revert to our default biological programming in times of stress.
One of those defaults is that people who look like us are more acceptable and less of a threat than people who don't look like us. This is why we we dress like other people in our preferred groups, and tend to avoid, and even dislike people with whom we share no fashion whatsoever. Just go to a sporting event wearing the wrong colors, or worse, go to an ethnic neighborhood dressed the wrong way.
So, if the problem is so serious have the local "authorities" stopped forcing the people to choose between being effectively armed and breaking the "law"? Until they do that any of their other measures are counterproductive.
to return completely to the militia model, strictly, is to set the boundaries of law enforcement at the state and county level -- which is how these is how these gangs already operate.
it is an implicit acknowledgement that these gangs will run their own territory: county, or city, for sure, but possibly even on the order of a state-sized polity -- though that might require splitting a few existing states with open conflict.
whatever the righteous path, it is more important to distinguish between tacit approval of statist aggression than focus on economies of scale in combat and security. no gang can be "too big to fail." they can all have public opinion turned against them on a dime -- just as constitutionalists and other militia and oath-keeper supporters are finding out today.
anyways, back to work for you, sir.
I see R A Heinlein's "Friday" coming.
B Woodman
III-per
The issue in Salinas is not 4th Generation Warfare, but plain, simple, immigration law enforcement.
i should add: i'm not saying i support abandoning the militia model to avoid ceding territory. far from it.
i just think it's plain to see that this is a gambit we currently face.
were we to find ourselves, tomorrow, without even a national guard, we're one in a million that can successfully route them alone, without public opinion. our own neighbors are soft. pending liabilities that are just waiting to be "marked to market," if you will, by the elephant in the room.
hamas wins their community support by planting a tree on a bombed-out sidewalk, and la raza wins theirs by positioning themselves against local LEOs. sadly, it doesn't matter if they're killers.
what do we do? being seen as nationalist, part of the problem to local-minded gang types, doesn't help -- and then what happens when that national infrastructure is just gone?
I lived in Salinas from when I was about 4 months old till I finished 4th grade(1959) and had many good memories of that town. Sherwood Park, Madonna Del Sasso School & Church. Trips to Monterey and many more good memories. (baby brother is buried there too). Dad's job at the Pet Milk plant where hwy101 underpass was at the RR trax had it's risks. Dad was told that if he ever saw a "wetback" to call the police so the illegal Mexican could be immediately deported. Those days are long gone since I recently read that the Hispanics are over the 50% number in Salinas and we can all see the result. Never thought I'd say this but maybe it's time for the Big Earthquake to slide Kalifornia into the Pacific Ocean. All my memories of Salinas are good ones but it's a shame that that good town has gone down the toilet. Funny thing is that I can still remember HA-26559 was our phone number. YEP, the good memories are the only GOOD thing about Salinas.
The threat as I have seen it in Salinas, Fresno, Oakland, L.A., San Diego, etc. is not to the gen pop, but within themselves.
They don't drive-by in Holmby Hills, La Jolla, or anywhere they know the people have the where with all to shoot back.
When it comes it won't be from the lowriders, it will be from the hungry. I remember the Cal National Guard with 6x6's and .50's after Watts for scare tactics but not a round was fired.
Homeboys ran, but if the SHTF will we?
If I lose a .308 somewhere will the Oathkeepers sweep the streets?
Skip 111
Just a couple observations:
'SF Officer' is sort of like saying 'Military Intelligence' both often being oxymorons... Perhaps things have changed with ossifers now being able to chose SF as a career path, but still an A-team is ten non-coms and two ossifers. An A-team works quite well with no ossifers but simply doesn't exist as an operational unit with no non-coms. Most ossifers I knew were hardly worth having around - their main value lay in shuffling paper, all the company advisors were non-coms regardless of the revisionist history you'll read in the ossifer self-published biographies of vietnam. I served in nam with one really great officer, and heard of a few more; but on the whole as a group they were superfluous and more trouble than they were worth.
In the world of modern Special Operations, for some strange reason the Navy has emerged as the major player while Special Forces has been shunted aside. I don't keep up with the nonsense but last time I saw anything on the issue the head of Special Ops was an admiral. Many special ops team sent into land locked Afghanistan are Seals... I will give Seals all the credit in the world for water borne operations, but on land I will take an A-team any day of the week - it is a different environment and requires a different mind set. Some of the after action reports coming out of Iraq in the earlier days where not complimentary at all regarding the action of some Seals trapped with SF troops guarding bases still under construction that came under attack - actually I'm talking about private contractors here.
Volunteer or not no military organization has any right to be on the ground advising police departments in the US of A. The concept of putting to use the knowledge gained in Iraq of how peace keeping organizations need to interact with the local population to develop a real civil society and government is absolutely a great idea. But the way to do that is by hiring former military as members of the police department or appointing such individuals to advisory committees, etc. A lot of National Guard troops did outstanding work in this line and the experience and knowledge they gained is one of the few benefits this country will reap from the whole mess.
Gangs can be stopped dead in their tracks by legalizing drugs. That is how they get their money, just like the gangs south of the border. The anti-drugs laws were deliberately put on the books to create the situation where civil unrest would grow and grow allowing the implementation of more and more repressing laws against the law abiding citizenry while the elitist control the whole show through the CIA and stuff the billions of dollars from it all into their pockets.
btw: Good to see all the updates to the story, Mike. hoorah...
bacsi
earthman92
Import mexicans...you get Mexico.
Welcome to Mexifornia.
It's happening all over the US.
Gangs are a serious problem. They have no loyalty outside of their gang. They have no legitimate moral code or ideals to guide their actions. I would be willing to bet that they get hired either openly oR covertly by the government once the SHTF. And the gangs will most likely happily sign on.
The answer for now should be that citizens be encouraged to be armed. A group of patriots might find it in their community's best intrest to stand up to these gangs since their law enforcement wither cannot handle or will not handle these thugs. I know I wouldn't tolerate thing nonsense in my community. And I don't think the local law enforcement would care too much if gang members started dying mysteriously.
This is a foot in the door though, with military being brought in consult on counter-insurgency ops. It will not end there
for sure. I can imagine some gang "war" to be hyped by the media and the idea of martial law or military being brought in to handle it. It's coming, you can see from all the hype about the violence on the border inside Mexico they are prepping us to except it.
"sadly, it doesn't matter if they're killers."
For a second I flashed on this as referring to the US military.
It's all a matter of gangs/tribes. In this case, it's just that one gang (the government) has flashier symbols than another.
Lind has the right take on this. It's gonna happen, so don't spend a lot of time worrying about it, other than getting yourself into a place where you are not a minority.
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