Watched a doc about Seal Team Six and a Seal Team Eight member intimated that it's common practice to deploy operatives clandestinely within humanitarian missions. Particularly they mentioned Red Cross, AmeriCorps, etc.
Is there anyone else out there that finds this as problematic as I do?
How can we affirm that a humanitarian mission will in fact be equitable or broadly useful if there are active duty military operatives with vastly different agendas infiltrating high level positions?
I definitely can recall some times after Harvey, Irma and Maria where the prerogative was to run a social media campaign that wasn't exactly informative. Explicit and mission critical obfuscation of facts... It certainly makes me wonder.
PS... the guy that was the neighbor of former Whitefish director Andy Techmanski, the organization the PR government fired, is Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke who also happens to a former Seal Team Six member.
You might not like me saying this, but I think it's time to create federal institutions for response to natural disasters that can utilize the elite training regiments of US Special Operators and simultaneously change the concentrations on combat to operation efficacy of humanitarian aide and civil restoration.
To put it simply, there are a lot of issues with people that are trained to kill being put out in the field with a lot of desperate people and being told to help those people. I have witnessed this firsthand.
Yes, they move fast and can get to those hard to reach places but at the same time, too many of those guys from the testosterone pit ended up getting physical with volunteers and random civilians. I know three separate groups comprised primarily of former special operators that were accused of assault and intimidation, one of two separate occasions and I'm aware of another former high level intelligence operator that after psychologically abusing his team took his own life.
OF course you have guys like Moses West who are completely on the opposite end of that spectrum. That man is highly trained, a brilliant inventor and possibly the most tolerant, talented and motivated humanitarian I have ever met.
However, I think guys coming back from the battlefield should take a little time to decompress before they go and jump into the action down here and I'm sorry but I'm still against dudes in NGOs with a focus and concentration in humanitarian work openly displaying their weapons.
P.S. the guy with the gun didn't check his gun in and the cop in the picture doesn't even carry a gun. He carries a sword.
I think that concealed carry in these situations, assuming they have checked in with jurisdictional government is a fine idea but they need to make sure that they have actually checked in and realize that waving weapons around in one place does not have the same effect as it does in others.
I have seen plenty of regular folks utilizing their rights to open carry in states like Alabama and Texas and it's the law so I don't think a gun is quite as intimidating as it would be in Puerto Rico where gun ownership is legal but very highly regimented. I have not once, seen a firearm down here being wielded by any Puerto Ricans except police and national guard and a few LEO affiliates that received permissions. I have seen waaaaaaaaaay too many gringos flashing their heaters and outright wearing them.
Some of these groups even scared people in Texas, where open carry is legal so it's likely the effect was even more intimidating in Puerto Rico