The Russian invasion of Ukraine has got me thinking about something. What would you do if there was an invading army taking over the U.S.? I realize that the U.S. is so powerful that the idea seems completely impossible. But that's not the issue I'm curious about. Set aside the improbability of that ever happening in our lifetimes. My question is, would you fight and die, or would you live under some foreign power? My answer to that is actually easy. It's not toxic masculinity or just macho bs that I would renege on. I am absolutely certain that I would just figure that this is how my life ends. I would get my rifle and ammo, and my goal would be to take out at least one enemy soldier, and as many others as I could, before they took me out. And if I could somehow evade their return fire and live to fight another day, I would until my luck ran out. There are a lot of ways to die. I can think of many that would be a lot worse than dying defending my country. What would you do?
I am worried about my family. I will be trying to maximize their safety in an unsafe time. That probably entails looking at ways to get them out of the way of the bombs and invading armies as long as hostilities last.
My kids are grown adults. I no longer protect them. For my wife, I would do everything possible to provide for her, but then I would say good bye to her and do what I have to do.
I think if one is able, physically and one's country is invaded, one has a duty to sign up and fight.
When one becomes a citizen of France one learns about the rights and responsibilities that you are legally entitled to. The only responsibility you have to do is to defend the country when asked to. So I have no choice. Precisely how I can do that is up to someone else.
I bet the Ukraine government now wishes it had allowed its citizens to have guns. That would have given them a large army to fight the Russian invaders.
It’s not toxic masculinity. It’s martial masculinity that precludes other types of resistances. The mothers of the May Plaza didn’t have guns but they did stop a dictatorship.
Many years ago, I made the mental decision that if it came down me dying or getting severely injured in order to protect my wife I would do it without thinking. I can only hope that if that time really comes, I will follow that promise I made to myself. What I do, will likely depend on what I think might happen to my wife.
I'm more then positive they would call on me to serve again. And I would. Everyone's ready for that situation.
I couldn't help but think of this very thing last night when reading and seeing things about Ukranian citizens arming themselves and preparing to join the fight. I'm afraid I'd be useless, but if it meant defending my freedom then I would do my best. Its still just so hard for me to fathom that this is actually happening and that it has come to this...
A piece of gossip i heard this morning. Reports of columns of Russian flamethrowing tanks heading towards Ukraine. They could do some crowd control...
I’m too old to be recalled into the military. So my way of fighting would be with my friends and neighbors or maybe just on my own.
I'm not sure what their rules would be. I just retired from the Army as an infantryman 4 years ago, so I think it would have to be pretty bad for me to get recalled. But if there are foreign troops on US soil, I'm sure that would qualify. Maybe I'd get reactivated as a drill sergeant again to help mobilize all the civilians. I dunno.
I am 56 years old, have hip disease and some other minor ailments that come with age, and I have ZERO training or experience in physical fighting and using a gun. I might just as well be cannon fodder, if I would decide to fight. No, I'd rather serve the country by using my brain to fight the enemy, in whichever way that would be. In WWII, part of the reason why the allies won the war was because brainiacs decoded the German secret Morse code. That's probably as valuable as actual soldiers. BTW: I think people are deluded if they think they can stop a modern military invasion with their combined AR15s. Maybe they can stage a slow insurrection, but stopping an invasion, not a chance.
I have no illusions that I and my friends could stop an army by ourselves. And though we would likely die, we (millions of us) could exact an enormous toll on an invading army. No, we couldn’t stop a tank with an AR-15, but we could make it deadly to be an enemy soldier on the ground using hit and run guerilla tactics, sniping, small improvised assaults. If we were ready and willing to die, we could try to fatally bleed them. It’s one thing to defeat our conventional military forces and declare victory and quite another to occupy and govern an armed population that’s ready and willing to die fighting.
The premise of my question arises out of what’s happening in Ukraine - a foreign army overrunning the country.
I would do the same. You know a top Soviet general once said that the USSR could defeat America in a war but they could never tale over and occupy the country because there would be a guy with a rifle behind every tree.
