A Present Day Revolution and Military Involvement?

If there was a present day revolution, the people against it's government. Which side would the military and law enforcement choose? I'm guessing at first the military will gear up and roll out, following all orders. But when the poop begins to hit the fan, will the military really kill citizens on a mass scale during a revolution? Or will they come to their senses and join up with the people?

My Dad and his friends have been inviting me to breakfast for the past few days and this has been the subject of discussion of late. Half of us think the military will not kill its own people, but the other half think they will just take us out! I'm not really sure what I think now.

Don't we have a few board members that are current or ex military? I would love to hear what they have to say on the subject.

You are forgetting the impact of the media and information control. You are not dealing with keystone cops here.

A terrorist insurgency will be dealt with not only by the overwhelming force of intelligence, military and militarized police. It will be cheered by a large majority of the population. The enemy will be dehumanized so no one cares when they get shredded. It will probably get great ratings on Fux News. It depends whom the insurgency pisses off.

The choice will be a hard one for the roops.
that being said, when the bullets are taking down your patrol or your buddies.....well theres no choice then but shoot back is there?
The problem of wooing the militay to the rebel side would have to be very well planned for in the choice of operations and the tactics used to fight said insurgency would it?
I could see the military being surprised by the rebels in the initial operations, and it may be that releasing the soldiers and sending them home would end to ruin the goverments dehumanisation propaganda .....
Great care and attention would have to be taken to try to ain such tactical surprise that no govt casualties, or minimal ones are taken by the regular troops.
This sounds impossible oi know, but oblique warfare is the only way of defeating such superior firepower...
You would have to get them to defeat themselves through flaws in their tactical manouver or doctrine.
I think it could be done but it would take some very genius Sun Tzu type strategies and tactics....
American toops do not want to kill americans....
But it can be arranged.......the rebels would have to approach he problem with counter strategies....
A supreme propaganda department would be key to successful revolution.
Information must be shared with as many as possible...

reply to post by JimboSliceLV


You have to understand, the government isn't stupid.

They will "dress" the situation where most people will welcome police and troops marching through our streets (see Boston).

There won't be an "us" versus "them" scenario.

Just my humble opinion. . . .

Funny you should ask, I had a pretty decent thread on the subject here www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe you'll get your answers there, it was a pretty good thread.

reply to post by dave_welch


Thanks, I will check it out. I searched some key words and phrases but couldn't find anything.

reply to post by JimboSliceLV


Just figured you might be interested. I'm not one of those "this thread already exists!" bozos. Sometimes, you just can't find the info you search for, so you post a thread. No big deal.

BTW, I was Active duty navy from Feb 2008 to Mar 2012, so I can answer some of your military questions, if you have any.

My thoughts? At first, active duty military types would be part of the suppression efforts, that is untill it turns violent, then most of them are either going to tell the one giving the orders no, because it's an unlawful order to fire on innocent Americans, many of them would defect.

If such a thing was to happen, the military ranks would be greatly thinned, thus making it a logistics nightmare.

Remember, all the planes, drones, ships, and missiles in the world are useless without someone to operate and maintain them.