STRATEGIC MATH AND CHEKHOV'S GUN

Every US City is surrounded by ‘circle freeways’, and with the average number of exits for these circle freeways being around 50, and with the number of armed troops needed to secure each exit being 6, and with only one heavy combat vehicle needed for each squad of 6 soldiers, the first 67 largest cities in the United States can be sealed off and contained within 24 hours by just 20,000 troops.

There is a literary principle known as Chekhov's Gun: "When a gun shows up in the first act, it will go off in the third".

ACT ONE

clipped from: www.msnbc.msn.com

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe

The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1

In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents."

Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.

the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.

Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,"

ACT THREE

clipped from: www.telegraph.co.uk

internal client note from the US bank Citigroup.

The bank said the damage caused by the financial excesses of the last quarter century was forcing the world's authorities to take steps that had never been tried before.

This gamble was likely to end in one of two extreme ways: with either a resurgence of inflation; or a downward spiral into depression, civil disorder, and possibly wars.

"The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done ($8 trillion and counting). When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed though into an inflation shock

"Or it will not work because too much damage has already been done, and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration, with the risk of a feedback loop.

This will lead to political instability. There is a risk of domestic unrest, starting with strikes because people are feeling disenfranchised." People react when they have their backs to the wall.

CASE STUDY

The Gaza Strip where barely 300 Israeli soldiers have cut off all food and fuel supplies to over 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children in an effort to contain and defeat Hamas.