John,
I just find it amazing how shallow Worldnutdaily presents their articles. They truly are the National Enquirer for the Conspiratorialists.
SpecOps forces do these operations quite frequently. And the reason they don't often make a public notification outside of authorities is that they don't want a huge crowd forming, and possibly, disrupting the exercise.
MOUT training (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) is some of the toughest training to perform because of the costs building suitable training facilities (mini-towns).
Because they are doing MOUT training doesn't mean they are training for US Y2K scenarios. They might just be training for another Mogadishu raid instead.
The second link in that article took us to an article about Fort Polk, Louisiana and the JRTC maneuvers that occur there. Having been involved in two of these JRTC rotations myself, I feel I can state with some confidence that they are not geared in anyway, shape, or form with domestic US operations.
In fact, the scenario was more attuned to a Latin American environment (or maybe West Virginia... :0), with peasants, local police (corrupt), spies, and guerillas running amuck.
Have you heard of the NTC (national training center) out in Ft. Irwin, CA?? That is where they actually have an Opfor unit that mimicks Soviet-era tactics and equipment, and US military units are sent there for wargames where they play a mega-version of "laser tag" (using MILES equipment that shoots low-intensity lasers to register kills on the enemy).
NTC is for Armored/mechanized Brigade sized units due to its geographical size and maneuver space.
JRTC is for brigade sized non-mechanized units and light infantry divisions (82nd and 101st have trained there as well). Having been in the "Box" twice myself for two weeks at a time, and the "PEHA" once for 2-3 days (those having been to JRTC will immediately recognize both of the those "conspiratorial catch phrases"... :0), I have to just sit here and laugh at these guys at Worldnutdaily and pity the people who lend them any credibility.
Worldnutdaily reporters are consumate journalistic "landscapers". They possess incredible abilities to turn molehills into alpine mountain ranges.
Regards,
Ron |
