The situation when I was in Berlin was nothing like the situation that is presently developing in Mexico. We were trained in riot control tactics, which involves the disciplined incremental application of whatever force is necessary to quell a civil disturbance. We would never have been ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians unless non lethal methods had proven ineffective and there was no other way to stop them. I can't imagine a scenario where we would have been deployed to keep people from escaping from East Berlin into West Berlin. Uncle Ken's "drunken sergeant" scenario is highly unlikely but, if it did happen, I would indeed refuse to shoot as ordered, which is exactly what we were instructed to do in a situation like that.
It's true I was worried that the military response to the Caravan would be half hearted and ineffective, but not any more. From what I have recently read on my news app, it sounds like they have a pretty good handle on the situation. The intent of such an operation should be to present the aggressors with overwhelming force so they will back down before anybody gets hurt, and that sounds like what is being planned here. The good old boys with their deer rifles have promised to stay out of the way. Last I heard, they were planning to take up positions well to the rear and be prepared to serve as backup support only if needed.
My sister replied to my email today, but she did not remember the "chicks up front" tactic. Although she allows that it might have happened, she never got close enough to the front to witness anything like that. I must have gotten the story from my parents, who may have gotten it mixed up with something they saw on the TV news. I didn't have a TV in those days, so my remembrance of it must have come from print media. I find it hard to believe that it's not somewhere on the internet, and will attempt to track it down, probably this weekend.
I have heard that our CIA did some questionable things in Central America during the Cold War, but I don't remember hearing that they "destabilized" anything. Although some of those countries were never very stable in the first place, the Commies would have been the destabilizers if anybody was. If the intent of the Caravan people is to destabilize our country, it just confirms what Trump has been saying all along. While anything is possible, I think it's more likely that they are just desperate people looking to better their condition. I wouldn't be against helping them if there weren't so darn many of them. If they are allowed to force their way into this country, they will quickly over run it and make it become like the countries they left behind. Then where are we supposed to go to better our condition?
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