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I was stationed in Buenos Aires ingvthe late 1980s. We lived in a very nice neighborhhod in what I thought was a a pretty safe 'house. It was bordered on three sides by other nice houses. There was an eight foot wall in the back yard. I use to hang my sweaty running stuf on a clothesline just outside the kitchen. Because I knew the neighbors behind had a noisy German Shepherd, I got pretty lax in locking the door. Unbeknownst to me, the neighbors behind had moved, taking my protection with them. Then one May morning, I came downstairs and noticed a change in usual light patterns. I looked around, and found that we had been burgled. The thieves took my VHS, my daughter's flute and my brand new Bass Weejins, the bastards. Scary to realize that we were burgled while sleeping. I reported this to the Security Officer at the Embassy who dispatched his police liaison officer to deal with the BA Police. They came to investigate in November.

The traffic in BA is horrendous, but it doesn't hold a candle to the Shah's Teheran or Tokyo. Still, BA was the best place in the world to eat world class beef or consume excellent Andean wine.

When I was a kid living overseas in an Asian Country, the house we lived in had a nice high concrete wall with broken glass cemented into the top of it. All of the windows had bars on them even the Garage had a barred cage door. You might have thought we lived in a prison and therefore was ‘safe’.

Ha! The thieves could break in, strip you bare in less than five minutes if they thought you had something they wanted. I learned there that one of the best defense was total obscurity, drive a dirty looking vehicle, wear plain looking clothes, try to blend in, even if that worked only from a distance. It could mean a big difference, if you were being profiled in preparation for... whatever.

There are many parallels with the USA and Argentina. But, I keep coming back to one idea. American is not Argentina. Yes, when the SHTF, there will be more crime and more havoc in America. But the backbone of America is not full of socialists. FWIW