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  • Worlds largest Army

    I guess I knew it, but hadn't thought about it much. CFII friend of mine relayed an email point about the number of US hunters.

    The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That's great. There were over 600,000 hunters.
    Allow me to restate that number. Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world - more men under arms than Iran ; more than France and Germany combined - deployed to the woods of a single American state to help keep the deer menace at bay.

    But that pales in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania this week. Michigan 's 700,000 hunters have now returned home. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia , and it is literally the case that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world.

    Guess the only way we would be successfully invaded is if they turned the country into a glassy plain first.

    Wonder if Congress and the powers that be ever thought about the above statistics?

    DC

  • #2
    Re: Worlds largest Army

    It gave the Japanese pause!
    Larry
    "I'm from the FAA and we're not happy, until your not happy."

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    • #3
      Re: Worlds largest Army

      There is no doubt that in an armed conflict, the US would be very powerful. Not only are we well armed, but we have demonstrated that, when pushed, we can be a united force.

      The problem is the slow assimilation of foreign cultures and ideals into the every day fabric of our society. Here in Texas, a large portion of advertising is in a foreign language with no English translation. There are two small towns in South Texas where Spanish is the official language. Try getting English as the official language anywhere in the US. Religious freedom protects every US citizen’s right to worship. Even to the point of allowing a religion that teaches the destruction of “infidels” to grow and flourish.

      Ponder that Batman.
      Tom Peters
      1943 L2-B N616TP
      Retired Postal Worker/Vietnam Vet

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      • #4
        Re: Worlds largest Army

        I haven't hunted since I was a kid, but my dad gave me a Ruger #1 22-250 (that is a 250 Savage necked down to 223) and one day a couple of years ago I put three rounds into an area about the size of my little fingernail at 100yards. I laughingly said that I might as well quit shooting as it wasn't going to get any better than that.

        There are probably a half million target shooters out there in addition to all the hunters, and most of us have things like M1A's or AK47's tucked away somewhere, just for fun.

        As for the other part; I do have difficulty understanding the seeming inability of the "governing elite" to realize that there is a real problem with some cultures not being able to separate their religion from their politics and government.

        I figure if they want to live in the 12th century that is fine with me, but don't come here pushing it on Us, (ala Europe's present problem.) We have our own way of screwing things up all by ourselves, we don't need any help.
        DC

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        • #5
          Re: Worlds largest Army

          The Constitution says all able bodied Citizens have the right to keep and bear arms. If you read the letters of James Madison and George Mason (the two who ACTUALLY WROTE the Second Amendment!) you will find that they not only were saying all citizens should be armed, but George Mason actually said citizens should have the most powerful and modern weapons available. BOTH define a "militia" as any able bodied citizen (only free men at the time fit the definition of "Citizen", but we have fixed that since then).

          Lucky for us a lot of the people in charge haven't done their interpretation magic on the actual words in THIS guys direction!



          Just paste it in and watch someone who is REALLY armed. Don't mess with this guy.

          Hank

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          • #6
            Re: Worlds largest Army

            In this guys case it should be feet. What a guy.

            No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
            Thomas Jefferson

            The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
            Thomas Jefferson
            Tom Peters
            1943 L2-B N616TP
            Retired Postal Worker/Vietnam Vet

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            • #7
              Re: Worlds largest Army

              We have a militia. Its called the National Guard. America was VERY reluctant to go to battle in WW2. Churchill begged FDR to send troops from 1940 0n but it was only Pearl Harbor that got us motivated. (Madison could not envision the current problems in the majority of American Citys today, nor could he imagine AK47s, repeating pistols, drug barons, etc. so a strict Constitutional interpretation of this type is really a stretch.) History shows that the country that had and still has the biggest and toughest army is....THe Russians. They also suffered the largest losses in WW2....MILLIONS! Far more than we or the British lost. They also kicked the Germans ass at Stalingrad and allowed us time to invade France in 1944. Had we gone in earlier, the Germans would have done us in. The German Army had VERY effective Generals,a superbly trained air force, and their troops were thought to be, at that time, the best army in the world.....until they tried on the Russians! Stalingrad was the beginning of the end. Russian troops were highly motivated! You either advanced, fought as hard as you could.....or you were shot! JC

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              • #8
                Re: Worlds largest Army

                It would be a waste of time to debate the intent of the founding fathers if you don't believe their logic applies in the modern world.

                As for the Russians, in my opinion (and it sounds like it agrees with yours) THEY won WW-II. They gave more blood. We traded treasure to preserve our blood. The Russians lost more people in the war than all of the other allies PLUS all of the axis. Even worse than you stated. They had more men than rifles and many were sent into combat charges with wooden guns. They were told to pick up a real one if they saw one on the field of battle. Many Russian soldiers killed a German with their wooden bayonet and took the Germans gun. It was a popular tactic. The German guns had more than the 3 rounds the Russians were issued. They were HIGHLY motivated. Stalin's operatives were not above killing anyone they thought was not aggressive enough, not that their troops weren't well motivated already. The Germans considered Russians subhuman and showed no mercy to civilians or soldiers.

                I worked with a lot of the Russians from their space program. WW-II is still a recent open wound to them, not a piece of history like it is for us. Their people are so much like us it's spooky. Their government is scary. It is outside of our understanding.

                A standing army is what the Russians had (and have). It is NOT a militia. A militia is to protect us from our own government, an army is to protect us from someone else s government. Madison understood that very well, and I think it still applies. The second Amendment it there so that the rest of them will be there when we need them.

                Hank

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                • #9
                  Re: Worlds largest Army

                  The DRAFT! repeat....the DRAFT! Had there been a DRAFT when DRAFT DOGER Cheney and Nat. Guard dive in Georgie Bush Started two wars, they would have been shut down! No future war should happen unless there is a DRAFT. Then....everyone goes, no deferments, no joining the Texas Air Guard "Champange Flight"! (It was called that as the aircraft flown was no longer used in Vietnam, hence, the pilots knew they would not be going there.) Currently, both wars still go on at about a billion per month. Both countrys, totally corrupt. No real end in sight. Lets not forget those Russians! They took a big bite out of the Afgahn pie and decided to beat it when we started supplying the afgahns with stingers. They had 150,000 troops there and incurred high losses both in troops and currency. Sound Familiar? As for the founding fathers, If one thinks that Madison, Hamilton, any of them.... could comprehend then what is going on now in this country and think they wouldn't have done things a bit differently, then it really is a waste of time to discuss it. JC
                  Last edited by jim cooper; 12-23-2010, 12:47.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Worlds largest Army

                    Jim,
                    You and I agree on too many things to get into a disagreement on one of the few we don't. Good friends avoid discussions that they know will only lead to a reduction in the value of the friendship.
                    I like all of the people here too much to mess up friendships on something as stupid as politics. Pretty much agree about Afghanistan. BAD place to fight a war! We fought in Iraq because we could WIN, and do it fast. Our troop losses were TINY in the Iraq war. Unfortunately, maintaining the post war presence has been a nightmare. NO ONE will ever win a war in Afghanistan (even the Afghans). The locals will drive ANY invader out and then go back to killing each other. Been that way for a couple of thousand years.
                    Hank

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                    • #11
                      Re: Worlds largest Army

                      I wasn't aware that the war in Iraq had been "won". Its still going on and costing millions. Its old , tired history that Rumsfeld was told by Gen Shenseki that it would take at least 350,000 troops to hold Iraq AFTER the invasion. Rumsfeld fired him. We went in with far too few troops (150,000)and no conception of Iraq, its people and its history. The only person with combat knowledge, who had actually served in combat was Colin Powell who told Bush not to do it...but if he did, to go in "with overwhelming strength." We also hired mercenarys like Blackwater. They cost billions more and did little good. They also were NOT subject to the MCJ which made the Army brass very angry. If there had been a DRAFT, its unlikely we would have gone into Iraq. Bad mistake! (to the close to 5000 American familys who lost someone in Iraq, the losses are not "tiny", rather they are immense!) This plus over a TRILLION dollars that could have been used for infastructure here in America that is falling apart, jobs, education, etc etc. Iraq today is in flux, corrupt and liable to have a civil war at a moments notice. The war there is FAR from won. This is simple fact rather than an arguement. JC
                      Last edited by jim cooper; 12-23-2010, 19:15. Reason: forgot

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                      • #12
                        Re: Worlds largest Army

                        OK, this is what we need to avoid. The WAR ended when the Iraqi army surrendered and we captured Saddam. At that point we had minimal loses. We beat the c**p out of them. We WON, end of story.
                        World War II ended when the enemy surrendered. Our LOSSES continued for a considerable time, just like Iraq. We lost a lot of good men in Germany after the surrender to Nazis who wouldn't give up, but the WAR was officially OVER.
                        What we LOST in Iraq (and are going to loose again) is the "peace" after the war. We could "WIN" the war in Afghanistan by turning the whole place into a sheet of glass, but we would still loose the peace. I don't know if we will EVER get out of the mess over there, but changing the definition of the time of the war doesn't help. We need to get the heck out without more short or long term pain. I wish we could just END the war and get out, but I'm not in charge.
                        My last comment on this. We don't agree and need to get back to airplanes.
                        Hank

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                        • #13
                          Re: Worlds largest Army

                          I vote for the sheet of glass.....

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                          • #14
                            Re: Worlds largest Army

                            That is 2 votes for the sheet of glass. That makes more sense than kicking thir ass and then spending trillions of dollars to build them back up,. They will still hate our country, however that will give us a reason to go to war with them again , when our ecomomy gets bad. Marv
                            Marvin Post TF 519

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                            • #15
                              Re: Worlds largest Army

                              Hank: congratulations, you have the last word! JC

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