Free Republic

I agree.
Look, I was rasied to respect police officers and I always have but even I am deeply concerned at the militarization of our "Civilian" police forces. I whole heartedly agree that many police officers have long forgotten their job is to "Protect and SERVE" and not to be a source of income for the local government by collecting fines. Since when has law enforcement become a for profit business as most local government use them for today by depending on police generated fines for income in their budgets? That seems to provide a disingenuous motive to "Protect and Serve".

Also think about this. When I was a kid cops wore a shirt and a tie and their uniforms appeared very "civilian" with the exception of their badge and their gun. Today's street cops wear "Tactical Military" type uniforms and a swat team appear no different than special forces units.

If you put on a shirt and tie does that make you feel more or less agress than when you don paratrooper boots and an MPs uniform with your tactical gunbelt? That switch from "Civilian Enforcement" to "Military Police" is achieved just that easily. Even the haircut of cop has an affect on his behavior and attitude. When I was a kid, cops had regular haircuts. The only stipulation was that a cops hair had to be cut above his ears and above his collar. Cops today look like Marine recruits and act like it too. I know police have a dangerous job but policing the public is much different than policing soldiers. All too often our police forces are manned with former MPs and soldiers instead of civilians from the community as it was years ago. I love our military but someone who is a military mind set and militarily trained is not always best suited for civilian law enforcement. The public is not the enemy to be eliminated for every possible infraction. Civilians do not have to uphold the standards of a military corp in their everyday lives or else be thrown in the brig for conduct unbecoming. Civilian policing is a wholly different mindset.

Example: I remember when a cop would catch some teenagers out drinking beer. The cop would speak with them and if the kids were not completely wasted, distructive, dangerous or difficult but were just being teenagers, the cop would take away the beer and take their car keys and call their parents to come get them. As a result, the kids got dealt with by their parents without having to be put in jail with a criminal record and the kids respected the police for not ruining their young lives. Today, its straight to jail, no questions asked, a big Hoowah by the force for bagging another DUI and raking in money for the city and a kid is placed in a cell with other much harder criminals until he gets bail and then he is forced to pay his fine and to hang-out with even more repeat drunks and drug offenders doing community service and having psycho therapy sessions with these losers who expose these impressionable kids to even worse habits and re-enforce the idea that "The Man" is picking on them. That kid ends up back in jail nearly everytime.

I don't advocate going light on drunk driving but I do believe that some discretion should be used before placing an otherwise good kid into the criminal justice system where he will probably be made worse. "Civilian Police" can see the difference between a kid who has made an error in judgement and a criminal that should be prosecuted to the limits of the law. "Military Police" do not have or practice that discretion because any violator is the enemy to be eliminated.

The reality is that Putin and all of his ministers and aides are former SOVIET KGB officers. It does not take a genius to figure out that the entire KGB did not fold up shop and decide to become westernized good citizens of the world when the Soviet Union collapsed. The KGB is the KGB is the KGB under the new name FSB with the same old management.

For political purposes, Putin maintains his pro-democracy sheep's clothing but he is a Soviet all the way. He was born a Soviet, raised a Soviet, educated a Soviet and was a career loyal Soviet officer in the KGB and always will be a Soviet.

Every move he has made in Russia since being handed the presidency by Yeltsin has been aimed at reestablishing Soviet style institutions under new names. Where the post-Soviet government sold government control of major industries, Putin has reclaimed them for reasons of "national security" or "tax evasion." The Russian government now owns and controls the entire military industrial complex, the oil industry, every news media outlet, the steel industry and the list continues to grow. Having taken control of the news-media by having the now government owned Gas and Oil giants buy all of the independent media outlets, Putin controls the internal politics of Russia as did the Soviet Union. Putin has eliminated all of his political opposition except for what little he allows to give him some international political cover. Putin has eliminated local elections for regional governors that he now appoints. Putin has sought to reestablish dominance over the now independent former Soviet States by actively attempting to manipulate political campaigns in the former Soviet states by acts including but not limited open endorsements and campign fund of Kremlin aligned candidates and assassinations of political opposition. Putin has signaled to Europe that now that they are dependant of gas from Russian Government owned companies and pipelines, that he will use energy as a political weapon against them. Putin has made agreements to sell weapons and technology to every major enemy of the US including enemies in our hemisphere such as Venezuela and Cuba. Putin is also seeking to promote leftist leaders elsewhere in Latin-American. Putin is selling weapons to every major US enemy in the middle east including Syria, Sudan, Iran and Libya. Putin has aligned himself with fellow communists in China and helped modernize the Chinese military into a fairly well equipped force. Putin has sought to dominate the Caucasus because of the vast natural gas and oil reserves in the Caspian Sea basin which are currently dependent on Russian pipelines for transportation thereby granting Russia control over the Caspian Sea nations economies by default.

From this position of dominance in the oil and gas markets, Putin can reestablish the Russia as a Global Super Power of Influence. Putin's close ties and support for Iran will destabilize the middle east driving up oil prices to the US and the west and lining his Russian Treasury with BILLIONS of Dollars. Putin's alignment with Iran and China will ensure that Russia's biggest arms customer still has access to cheap Iranian oil and gas in order for China's economy to continue to boom and China to continue to support the Russian military industry by continued purchases of major military platforms. Russian and Putin's influence in Venezuela will destabilize Latin-America, put US oil imports in jeopardy, raise oil prices, promote other leftist-socialist pro-Russia/Soviet governments in Latin-America, supply arms to Columbian rebels and drug lords via Venezuela.

No, it doesn't take a genius to see that these are all of the same policies of the former Soviet Union and if you can't feel that dangerous Cold wind blowing, you are in for a real shocker in the next 10 years. The Russians and the Chinese are teaming up to dominate the world energy market at the expense of the US because that is the obvious weakness of our great nation. Therefore a nuclear armed Iranian ally is in the interest of both China and Russia politically and economically. China isn't building a blue water navy to use against Taiwan. You don't need an aircraft carrier to attack Taiwan from the mainland China but you do need one to operate from the Pakistan port and defend the Straits of Hormuz against the US who may seek to halt all Iranian oil shipments over the nuclear issue. The reason why Russian and Chinese cooperation with the US in fighting terrorism has been limited is that as long as the US is tied-down fighting the struggle against terrorism mostly on its own, the Russians and the Chinese can expand their influence as the enemies of the US are then willing to make alliances.

People need to get their head out of the sand. Geopolitics is a deadly and ruthless game of chess and longterm strategy. The longest term problem for the nations of the world with growing populations, growing economies and dependence on petroleum for lack of any viable alternative, is access to energy. Strategically, energy/petroleum is still the gold standard in the world like it or not. It is important to remember the "golden rule" in such cases - "He who controls the gold makes the rules."