[regular.joe]

:: puts on devil’s advocate hat:: Look, letting the military off the leash against US civilians is not a good thing. That would be bad. Agreed. I am not a military planner, at least not at the level we are talking about. If I were, it would be just plain bad planning for me not to think about a time when I might have to put US troops on the ground in the US. I'd have to think about all the things that would lead me to do that. I'd really have to analyze this. There are times of large disasters, manmade and not manmade, when it is a good call to put troops on the ground, so they can help. Many of us have put forward many assumptions, based on the past, as to what might happen if we put troops on the ground in the US. These are not facts, they are assumptions. We want to validate, or invalidate these assumptions. We do this with things like exercises. I'm sure this exercise will answer many questions about the who, what, when, where, should we? of this course of action.

Just to throw out a question off the top of my head. What happens if MS13 decides to take over every aspect of their turf pulls out the smuggled and stolen AT-4 rocket launchers, and belt fed weapons and kills a fair amount of law enforcement? What if, they do this in multiple cities, synchronized. Hmm...while I'm brainstorming about possible scenarios, what if this same group allies themselves with a common enemy of the US state, say some jihadists from the middle east?

The civilian population of the US has charged me with their defense. Should I let the fears of some of these civilians in my country dissuade me from finding out what is viable, or not, through actual experience? Especially when that experience can be gained without casualties, in a situation where no one will be hurt or killed?