Kreutz wrote:MarcSpaz wrote:Some thing along the same line, CBP is literally at war with drug lords, weapons smugglers, and human traffickers who all have weapons of war available to them to use against our federal law enforcement. Our men and women deserve to have the same or superior weapons and equipment to protect themselves and fight these wars, regardless of if it's an armored vehicle, automatic weapons or strike drones.
2,700 of them are necessary for this purpose?
MarcSpaz, ^^^ is exactly my point. Thank you, Kreutz.
MarcSpaz wrote:Well, if a DHS component is executing a warrant for known terrorists who have access to or are known to have access to grenades and other explosives, high powered rifles and known to have a propensity to want to die and take as many people with them as possible, why wouldn't they want to have as much protection as possible?
Some thing along the same line, CBP is literally at war with drug lords, weapons smugglers, and human traffickers who all have weapons of war available to them to use against our federal law enforcement. Our men and women deserve to have the same or superior weapons and equipment to protect themselves and fight these wars, regardless of if it's an armored vehicle, automatic weapons or strike drones.
A domestic agency buying these things does not mean they are automatically going to be intended to be used against citizens of this country for reasons of tyranny.
Marc, you presented some very grand examples of why DHS would need this vehicle. But these examples are like white rhinos -- rarely seen or heard of, and still does not answer why DHS needs 2,700 of these vehicles. I'm quite familiar with these vehicles and how much they cost, which FWIW aren't even close to being inexpensive either, as each is north of $1M apiece, or so my government customers have told me. So there goes $2.7B. Which leads me to this thought:
Taking into account the large ammo purchases recently by DHS, it calls into question the necessity for these items and in these quantities. Particularly when, in the same breath, Janet Napolitano is releasing thousands of illegal immigrants (criminals) due to budget cuts which hadn't even taken place at the time. Cut back the ammo and armored vehicle purchases and keep the criminals in jail or deport them.
If DHS were fighting an actual war, with a known, uniformed enemy then these vehicles would make more sense. But last I checked DHS hasn't faced terrorists on U.S. soil since Col. Nidal Hassan at Ft. Hood, so what is it they're expecting that justifies this purchase. Even if we added in "drug lords, weapons smugglers, and human traffickers," I can't justify what DHS has done. And I have a large number of friends who work for USSS, FBI, NSA, and DHS. I asked a very senior level friend at DHS:DNDO (an office which might have an argument for a couple of these vehicles) and he couldn't explain the need either.
I used to trust the government on the whole. Under this particular president, I do not. DHS' purchases do not make sense to me on any level.
