The Mogadishu District?

 This came up today, and it's one of those stories to make you wonder about things.

The acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (Ken Cuccinelli) made this comment over last week (after events of the 6th).

In some interview on Fox News....the journalist was interviewing Ken and wanted to hype that the 25k National Guardsmen were way more than currently servicing in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

Ken kinda agreed with her, then said it was basically the equal of a Army division.  Most former Army guys would let you know that when you start talking about a division....that's usually an invasion force and it's meant for real serious business. It's not a force for door-guard duty.  

Then he came to this odd piece of information about the request for Guardsmen.....House Speaker Pelosi wanted him to make sure they were armed with "crew-manned machine guns".  

I paused over that.

Typically, that kinda means that folks are in APC's or HUMVEEs.....with 50-cal guns, M249 guns, M-60s, or MG-338s.  For plain raw killing power, with three or four HUMVEEs set up like this....you could take down a thousand unarmed protesters real quick.

Did Pelosi even know what "crew-manned machine guns" were?  I have my doubts, and it was probably on some 3x5 inch index card that she was reading off, or she saw it on some war documentary.

Sounding like a Mogadishu-scenario?  Well....yeah.  Or maybe some Iraqi 'Green-Zone'.  

What's likely to come in the months ahead?  I think Pelosi will somehow get the President to authorize the Capital Police to have APCs, small armored vehicles, and a reactionary Capital Guard force of a thousand men available. 

In simple terms....this will look like some banana republic in South America and tourists will be scared of the landscape in DC.

How did Ken react to the request?  Nothing else was asked, and he kinda skipped the rest of this discussion.  Based on what I've seen in video action from the 20th....the Guardsmen had M-16s only.  

You just get the impression that things in DC are not that sane or safe, and the last place you ought to allow your kid or school group to 'tour'.....is the DC area.