These defensive sprays have applications in riot control as well as personal defense. OC can be sprayed on individual aggressors within a crowd, applied to violent clusters of individuals, or sprayed broadly into a crowd to disperse it. It serves as a vital less-lethal weapon to potentially de-escalate situations before lethal force is required, giving defenders another option to defuse hostile encounters. Compared to traditional tear gas devices, OC is legal nearly everywhere and widely commercially available in a dazzling variety of forms.

There are two main methods of OC dispersal: liquid aerosol and blast expulsion.

• Aerosol canisters use compressed air or the pressurized solution itself to expel a fine spray of liquid agent. This is the type most commonly used by law enforcement and for self-defense. It is the same mechanism as many aerosol products around the home.
• Blast expulsion covers using an explosive or other force, including inertia, to eject a powdery, micro-pulverized chemical agent. Compressed air is found in the commercial Kimber Pepper Blaster product. Explosive, or often just inertial dispersion from when the container ruptures on impact, is most often found in riot control munition 12 gauge shells or 37/40mm grenades.

Fogging refers to using a heat source to vaporize a liquid to release it as a cloud of "fog" vapor. These devices are commonly referred to as “pepper foggers” which are distinct from the "fog" spray patterns of aerosol canisters. Foggers are typically used to disperse large quantities of CS gas and not OC.

The effective range of OC canisters can vary depending on the specific formulation, propellant, and design. The MK3, MK4 and MK9 designations refer to different sizes of pepper spray canisters, with MK3 being smaller and MK9 being the largest. Some generic examples of different capacity canisters are listed below, but actual specs may vary by brand.

In discussing various OC spray dispensers, considerations revolve around the type of spray, including stream, cone, foam, gel, vapor patterns and the “360” degree claim. Pattern is an important consideration in selecting a device as it will affect the coverage, range, and accuracy of delivery. Some patterns are unsuitable for crowd control or use in high wind, while others are best when discriminate delivery is necessary. It would be worth the money to buy a few inert canisters to practice with and to visualize the spray pattern.

Streams are likened to laser precision, minimizing blowback, while cone (some times “fog”) sprays create an OC cloud, increasing the chance of hitting the target but posing a higher risk of self-contamination. Cone-shaped mist sprays offer a shotgun-like pattern for efficient face hits and coverage, yet they are most susceptible to wind and cross-contamination.

Streamers, with a longer range and lower cross-contamination risk, demand more accurate placement for effective use. The accuracy allows the stream to be “steered” and, for example, can be fired directly into the center of the face or aimed at openings in masks. Most law enforcement agencies use stream patterns to strictly control where the OC goes. The advantages of stream-type dispensers include their usability in windy conditions, outperforming certain spray-style units. Careful aiming is necessary to deliver an effective eye hit, though streams do provide some “splashing” effect to carryover the solution to other parts of the face.

Gel sprays, resembling streamers but thicker, exhibit minimal aerosolization, resulting in zero respiratory effects. Caution is advised with "gel" versions due to reported issues, including longer onset times. Gels’ narrow streams and low aerosolization are preferred in sensitive environments like courts, hospitals, and correctional facilities due to their reduced cross-contamination potential. However, direct eye hits are essential.

When selecting OC (pepper spray), it is recommended to aim for a Major Capsaicinoid Content (MCC) between approximately 0.7% and 2%. The MCC is a crucial measurement as it accurately represents the strength of the entire formulation. Do not to solely rely on SHU or the percentage of OC listed, as these numbers can be deceptive. MCC is a more consistent and reliable indicator of strength. For instance, “10% OC” would indicate that a tenth of the solution in the container is the active ingredient and the remaining 90% would be the alcohol or water based solution. MCC, with 1.3% being an ideal percentage for anti-personnel use. However, anything over 0.7% MCC is considered acceptable for effective defensive use.

You can get aerosol pepper spray or tear gas grenades. These work just like bugbombs. You can toss an aerosol tear gas (CS) or pepper spray (OC) grenade along with a smoke grenade to create a sort-of combined effect and fake people out into thinking it's a true tear gas grenade.

OC grenades in this context are aerosol containers that either dispense from a top-mounted nozzle or through a tubular aperture. These are distinct items from pyrotechnic OC grenades, which are covered in the tear gas chapter. One example is a six-ounce can that will cover up to 10,000ft3 in 60 seconds (total diffusion time) with a device discharge time of approximately six seconds.
A valve continuously sprays until the pressure supply is exhausted. These are unidirectional cone sprays. Once you press that button, it starts spraying until empty, usually for about 10-15 seconds. The range of their spray isn’t great. They obtain maximum coverage when placed vertically (like a bug bomb), but if thrown, will likely only spray in whatever direction they land. They also don’t spin around and project the spray in a radial pattern. What it does do outside is create a direct line of spray and can form an irritating aerosol cloud.
OC grenades are ideal for crowd management, area denial, and extracting persons from confined spaces (cells, rooms, attics, crawl spaces). Extraction grenades are intended for barricaded subjects such as a violent inmate in a cell. They often come with small, short vinyl tubing intended to deploy the substance into a confined area through a small opening.

Use of OC is legally restricted to situations where physical force is appropriate in self-defense. In other words, if you could hit the person, you can use OC. Though local laws may vary, a person must feel that they are imminent danger of physical harm. In the use of force continuum, OC usually falls into the same category as punches, but below firearms and impact weapons. While uncomfortable, neither blows nor OC should result in any serious or last injury. Note that inappropriate use of OC could constitute assault and/or battery in your jurisdiction.

OC and other less-lethal weapons should only be used in necessary self-defense when lesser methods have failed. It should never be used as a punitive weapon simply to inflict suffering. Verbal direction, passive methods, and (where appropriate) physical redirection should be used first, though post-SHTF, especially in a WROL situation, these lesser means may not be practicable.
OC is not intended as a substitute or replacement for firearms when a lethal threat is being presented.

The intended effect of chemical agents including OC are, categorically:

• Distract
• Disorient
• Disrupt activities
• Disperse
• Disable

OC does all of that. With proper deployment, the subject is in too much blinding pain to do anything other than run away or beg for relief. Untreated, a seriously affected individual will be unable to see effectively to fight for at least ten minutes, probably greater if they are not decontaminated. Even small doses can get the uncommitted to leave. A protest crowd providing cover for violent actors within it might be convinced to go home if they suddenly are pepper sprayed.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a massive, coordinated assault on Israel, slaughtering civilians, overrunning military outposts, and taking hostages with ruthless efficiency. Entire communities were caught off guard, their defenses crumbling in minutes. People who assumed they were safe—who believed they would have warning, that help was on the way—were hunted down, executed, or dragged into captivity. The system failed them.

October 7 wasn’t a "terror attack" in the way most people think. It was a military-style raid designed to overwhelm defenses, kill as many as possible, and take hostages. And it worked.
If you think something like that could never happen where you live, you’re already behind.

Israelis near Gaza trusted their government, their military, and their security barriers.
They thought they were safe. On October 7, those illusions burned to the ground. What happens when the people meant to protect you aren’t there?

What do you do when your house is surrounded, your neighbors are dead, and there’s no help coming? On October 7, some survivors hid and prayed Hamas wouldn’t find them.
Others fought back—alone, under-armed, outnumbered. Which one are you?

Americans assume they’ll be fighting idiots when SHTF. The reality? Your enemy is smart, brutal, and doesn’t care if he dies. October 7 showed what happens when people underestimate raiders. Are you making the same mistake?

Firearms are essential, but firepower alone won’t save you.
•    No training? You’re a liability.
•    No teamwork? You’re outmaneuvered.
•    No perimeter security? You’re already dead.
•    Hamas didn’t attack individuals—they attacked communities.
What’s your plan?

Israel had walls, cameras, gates, and checkpoints. Hamas cut fences, used drones, paraglided over barriers, and walked right through. Security isn’t about infrastructure. It’s about men with guns ready to stop the threat. Who’s watching your perimeter?

Every civilian who survived October 7 did one of three things:
1.    Hid well enough to go unnoticed.
2.    Fought back hard enough to drive attackers off.
3.    Got incredibly lucky.
If you’re relying on #3, you’re doing it wrong.

You won’t have time to prepare when SHTF.
•    No time to unlock the armory.
•    No time to organize a defense.
•    No time to make a plan.
It’s either already in place, or you’re just another casualty.

Terrorists don’t care about “rules of war.” If you’re taken hostage, your best-case scenario is being used as a human shield. The worst-case? Well… you’ve seen the videos. Your best chance is fighting back at the moment of capture.

You don’t need a bunker. You need a plan.

•    A plan for first aid when EMS won’t come.
•    A plan for escape when roads are blocked.
•    A plan for when the power is out, the phones are down, and you’re on your own.
No plan? No chance.

Once upon a time, many of the rich and noble believed in noblesse oblige—the idea that they had a duty to care for society. They provided for the poor, treated employees decently (or pretended to), and avoided completely hollowing out the soul of the world for profit.

They were far from always noble or perfect. Manor lords gave jobs, if only to keep their estates running, but this kept their communities working. Aristocrats might toss a few coins to the poor to keep up appearances. Even today, the King hands out Maundy money. Social responsibility, however imperfect, was a value.

Even America’s robber barons practiced this (at least symbolically). Carnegie built libraries across the country. Vanderbilt founded a university. Say what you will about their motives, but they at least felt the need to give something back to the communities they profited from. Now today's billionaires run foundations that want to ban meat, give people weird vaccines, or turn your kids (and the frogs) gay.

Now, let's go to It’s a Wonderful Life. The movie gives us two archetypes: George Bailey and Mr. Potter. George is middle-class but raised with a sense of responsibility. Potter is rich and embodies the modern ethos of profit at all costs. Let’s break them down.

Potter is the prototype of today’s corporate overlord. He cares only about money. Venture capitalists would admire him. He’d strip-mine Bedford Falls, offshore jobs, and spike rents. He’d thrive in a world where drug addiction and despair follow economic collapse. Sound familiar, West Virginia? Who cares if you're so desperate you do meth if somebody gets a yacht.

In the "vision" portion of the film, Potter’s Bedford Falls is bleak—usury, seedy tenements, drunks, and exploitative slumlords. Immigrants? Serfs to exploit, not neighbors to uplift. He’d love illegal immigration and H1B visas as tools to boost profits, regardless of how they fracture communities.

George Bailey, in contrast, represents social responsibility. Raised by a father who saw his work as a calling, George’s family wasn’t wealthy, but they understood their role in helping others succeed. The Building & Loan made homeownership possible for the working class. He used his soft power for good while Potter used hard power to enrich himself, the consequences for everyone else be damned. He wanted to be loved (hence his willingness to destroy Uncle Billy, George, and the Building & Loan), but lacked the sense and humility to do it the real way.

George, like the best of his generation, sacrifices his dreams for his neighbors. This echoes the last real gasp of the British aristocracy. George's sense of duty echoes the British officers of WWI—men who gave everything for those they led, willingly joining the war as leaders, rather than shirking because they had the influence to avoid service. George’s father modeled this well: respected, comfortable, and committed to his community.

George learned well from his father and devoted himself to the community with admirable dedication. However, he lacked the resolve to make tough decisions. He could have appointed a more competent steward for the Building & Loan than his uncle and pursued his own dreams. With his many well-connected friends, George had opportunities to invest and build a better future for himself without abandoning Bedford Falls. While he was undoubtedly a good man, George's shortcomings lay in his limited imagination and reluctance to break free from the constraints he imposed on himself.

In reality, George often seems to embrace being beaten down and playing the role of everyone’s workhorse—a classic ISFJ trait. Uncle Billy, on the other hand, is an incompetent drunk who arguably deserves little sympathy for his repeated blunders. But giving the film the benefit of the doubt, let’s imagine George wises up. He makes smart investments with his well-connected friends, eventually takes over the bank when Potter dies in 1954, and becomes the town’s true benefactor. Following the trajectory of Jimmy Stewart’s other iconic roles, it’s easy to see George moving on to bigger things—perhaps even becoming a Senator.

What's the conclusion? We live in a global Pottersville today, where the callous rich only seem to care about getting richer. Those good, honest men who aren't bloodthirsty with ambition and greed don't rise to the top anymore. No, this isn't advocating for socialism or any of that crap, but a paen for a return to Christian charity and goodness. Men like George Bailey make the world a better place.

You may have heard the urban legend of early or experimental “red” night vision goggles used in Vietnam allowing users to see interdimensional beings like ghosts or demons. The following is one account of the urban legend given by the Coast to Coast AM radio show of July 8, 2023 with guest Mark Anthony:

While to anyone who understands any basic scientific information about how night vision works would immediately recognize this as implausible, it has not stopped retellings from going viral on TikTok.

Various spurious claims with just a little scientific truth mixed in to sound plausible to the ignorant have been made. One claim was that a chemical dye, Dicyanin, a toxic dye, was used in the early NVGs. It leaked out and caused hallucinations. However, dicyanin is not known to have psychoactive properties that would induce hallucinations even if they somehow were used in otherwise red goggles. Group hallucinations of the same phenomenon over a period of time are improbable because typically each persons’ hallucinatory experience is different. So what if it was the dicyanin that allowed people to see the spirit realm like a sort of visual filter?

Walter John Kilner, eccentric author of The Human Atmosphere, researched the idea of the human “aura,” or an electromagnetic field around the body. Kilner used dicyanin tined glasses believing that the resulting tint altered light to reveal the aura. The problem is that dicyanin is a blue tint, although he did use carmine red glass in his experiments. So assuming that the dye somehow allowed one to see the spirit world, this variation of the myth can’t even get the colors right!

Actual veterans have destroyed the rumor. Several pilots from that era have confirmed that there were no red NODs at that time, let alone goggles for flight crews. Extremely rare SU49 and SU50 goggles, which became the AN/PVS-5, date from the late 1960s and used green phosphor tubes. The near-prototype goggles were only used on an experimental basis and on the highest profile, top-secret operations like the Son Tay raid.

These early devices used low-sensitivity tubes, were heavy, and cumbersome and not adopted. Even the improved PVS-5 was hated for its bulk and incompatibility with cockpits.

There is no evidence or record of the US military ever having used red night vision. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that they secretly actually didn’t, nor that demons weren’t spotted. Being top secret, of course this kind of thing would be hushed up and all proof of red NVGs and their disturbing revelation covered up. For anyone who sincerely believes that, there is no convincing them otherwise.

For everyone else, the story has just enough truth to give someone with the vaguest understanding of night vision the impression that it’s true. A pseudo-intellectual explanation appealing to an uniformed audience might appear to make sense. It’s easy for someone with limited scientific knowledge to conflate the color red with the infrared spectrum. After all, red light helps preserve night vision, doesn’t it? If nighttime lighting is supposed to be red, isn’t that the best color for NVGs? But it also makes sense that people would see demons because red is an “angry” color.

While red does help preserve night vision by causing the slowest bleaching of the light-sensitive chemical rhodopsin in our eyes, it’s not a good choice for color displays. In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, a virtual-reality headset that turned out to be a commercial failure. Perhaps one of the reasons it failed was its red-on-black monocolor screen.

Nintendo used only red LEDs due to cost, producing a monochromatic red image that resulted in players complaining of vertigo, nausea, and headaches. One reviewer said “the red was frankly kind of hard on the eyes.” Others were annoyed or disappointed with the screen. Whether it was the monocolor display, the color red, or other reasons, the Virtual Boy did not succeed.

Red as a color for augmented reality should have been seen as a poor choice simply from a psychological standpoint. Red is traditionally associated with strong emotions and is considered an attention-grabbing color. It can also stimulate physical responses, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. Research in color psychology has indicated that red is associated with heightened arousal. It’s absent from most lighting, except in narrow military contexts. It’s often used in film to create tension or fear and to unsettle the audience. Red is an unnatural color, not often seen in nature, except usually as a warning.

Red phosphor tubes do exist. They are fairly recent developments and very rare. Most were developed for trials. As far as any published, unclassified source shows, red tubes were never used operationally by the US military. In fact, it doesn’t seem like they were ever really used in any serious research. Every commonly used phosphor screen has been a shade of green. Only the thermal imager, the AN/TAS-4A used with the TOW Missile launcher, used a red and black LED display.

Phosphors are used in screens, such as in early cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, because it has the ability to emit light when struck by electrons. In these screens, a beam of electrons is directed onto the phosphor coating inside the screen, and when the electrons hit the phosphor (luminescence), it glows, creating the visible image. Phosphors are ideal for night vision applications also because of their persistence; the light emitted from phosphors lasts just long enough to provide a clear, continuous image without overwhelming the viewer’s eyes or causing excessive afterglow.

While it’s true that any phosphor could generate the images, not all are suitable. Red phosphor tubes do exist and many different colors of phosphor were developed and tested during the early development of display screens, red was only adopted in certain niche applications. Red phosphors were more prone to burn-in and degradation over time compared to green phosphors. Green phosphor was also brighter and more efficient, while red had issues with persistence, meaning that the image quality was often poorer.

Green is simply a better color from a both spectral efficiency and human visual sensitivity perspectives. Yellow-orange-red light is not the optimal color for sensitivity in low-light conditions; green is. Red screens would produce a suboptimal image. Parts of the image that reflect red-orange light may appear less distinct or blended with adjacent colors, leading to a loss of contrast and detail. In a way, this would be like colorblindness.

Green phosphors often have better persistence characteristics, meaning the glow lasts just long enough to create a smooth image without excessive ghosting or flicker. Red phosphors, by comparison, may not offer the same level of smoothness in certain applications, especially early on in development.

The first documented US use of red phosphor in night vision dates from 1987 where a mix of red and green tubes was used in the Chromatic PVS-5 goggle. The goal was to create color night vision by using binocular fusion, except experiments were unable to produce true-color views. Later experimentation was tried in the 2010s and red phosphor tubes were briefly available in limited numbers around that timeframe by special order. It’s not so much that red phosphor tubes never existed, it’s that their documented development was later than the Vietnam war.         

Some of the collectors who obtained recently made red tubes posted images and they are certainly striking, perhaps even unpleasant to look at. While on objective terms they perform equally to P43 green tubes, perhaps subjectively they appear slightly darker and have less contrast. It probably wouldn’t be anything anyone would want to spent the night looking at. The color would likely exacerbate the psychological aspects of night combat. Whether red or green night vision, probably the mind that is most responsible for any perception of evil.

An article published in 2017[1] is often cited as “proof” of the stories, is anything but. Rather, the author clearly documents that the optical illusions variously described as “dragons,” “ghosts,” etc. were the product of unfamiliarity with night vision, fear, stress, and fatigue. None of the accounts seem to seriously suggest the user believed they were seeing the supernatural.

[1]

Soldiers and Marines, who grew up with black and white TVs, were unaccustomed to seeing the world through night vision and to them it may have seemed a little like magic. “Soldiers who spent ling nights peering into this strange electronic topographical arrangement began to see it not so much as an altered version of the landscape before them but another world…” The low resolution of early tubes didn’t help the otherworldly appearance. Some users reported being “bewildered” by jungle phosphorescence or shadows from flares and may have mistaken this as apparitions.

There was also the psychological burden of “seeing” the enemy who became less of a vague figure and as another human, not merely a target.

We’ve been conditioned by film to see red as a bad color, so would it be surprising if someone subject to the intense stress and fear of combat, coupled with anxiety, might be spooked by a red image? Even the few side-by-side comparisons of green and red phosphor tubes make the red ones look “bloody” and unpleasant. Red, therefore, is probably the worst color for night vision. Not that there actually were any red NVGs in Vietnam at the time, but if there were, it might be unsurprising to find that spending an entire mission looking at the world in red would produce anxiety.

This was an excerpt from The Night Vision Manual - Book 1 Image Intensification, a comprehensive guide to night vision.

[1] Richard A. Ruth, “The Secret of Seeing Charlie in the Dark,” Vulcan: The Journal of the History of Military Technology, 2017

Images taken through the tubes of red and green phosphor NVGs. Courtesy of J.W. Ramp.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwhairybob/47493171282/in/photostream/
https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/Let-s-See-Some-Red-Phosphor-Christmas-Tree-Night-Vision/18-498793/

The problem with automated, algorithm driven moderation is that a simple batch of code that looks for prohibited words in the "wrong" order can't look for context. So for instance if you reply to something like say: "Canadian healthcare is so good you'll be seen in 2 years for that broke leg" with "Well, you could always commit suicide!", the code doesn't know it's a facetious reply.

In fact, the Indians who review this stuff (maybe, if you're lucky) probably don't even know what "facetious" means.

What happened here was the system saw "commit suicide" with a verb structured in such a way that in isolation it could be seen as an encouragement to self-redact. Obviously to a human it's not an encouragement do anything, but a smart-ass remark commenting on on how Canadian health care and assisted suicide is out of control. But does the code know that? Of course not.

So without warning you get a 7 day suspension for nothing more than putting words in an order that the code doesn't like. Nothing wrong was done, but computers are only as smart as they're programmed to be. For instance, I could (and many have) written: "You should go and Canadian healthcare yourself," meaning "kill yourself." But is the system smart enough to recognize that? No, of course not. It's like a blind traffic cop only pulling over speeders in Ferraris.

This could be resolved very quickly with a human to look at the code, but apparently the Twitter appeal process is nothing but automated denials. Maybe you get lucky and someone gets tired of seeing it pop up and a human looks at it at some point. Or maybe not.

It's a dumb system because 1. there's no warning that the speech is bad and what the rules are and 2. there effectively is no appeal if no human looks at it. So if you put words in the "wrong" order, you're automatically in the wrong. It's like being informed that something is illegal after you've done it. No, more correctly it's something being determined to be wrong after the fact because someone didn't like it.

In any event, I'm in time out for no more reason than computer code. Elon or not, Twitter isn't a free speech zone. It's better, but not without the follow through to make sure that speech is free and with poorly implemented policies and codes. But hey, moderators and programmers cost money! Of course, there doesn't seem to be any sort of algo that can detect the pedophiles or ban the bots.

Whatever. The enshitification of the Internet continues.

It’s upsetting to see the level of hypocrisy and invective regarding the black airman who was shot by the police for answering the door with a gun in his hand. So many people I formerly respected went from zero to “fuck the police” over a single video without any debate or analysis of it. Those who have attempted to inject nuance into the rhetoric have been digitally lynched.
 
I’m really disappointed by a lot of people I otherwise agree with. This incident among others has illustrated a few things. Yes, people have always hated the concept of police because no one likes being told what do to by someone with the ability to back it up by force. There’s always been a segment of the freedom/veteran/gun/prepper/whatever community that has had a “fuck the police” attitude but in this case more than any others it sounds purely like a bunch of ghetto blacks upset because their criminal son got shot.
 
The conflation of “any killing that looks questionable to me is murder” also bothers me. Manslaughter, sure. A civil tort, sure. Wanting to have a discussion about tactics, stress inoculation, etc. that’s one thing, instead it has become personal. Well, frankly fuck you for being stupid. And that’s it. The ignorance, the allowing oneself to be drug around the nose by emotion, and the refusal to look any further than those bare emotions is what bothers me.
 
Events like these are why I believe propaganda is so powerful. The a large number of people, may be even a majority of people, are fundamentally unable to separate emotion from fact. Nor can they separate their personal feelings and fears from what are ultimately events totally unconnected with them.
 
I do believe that the state of the world is a fractious one and the pomposity we’re seeing here is a symptom of how people are feeling. Ultimately, I think they think “That could be me!” for one reason or another. Statistically speaking, it’s unlikely, but this is the crowd that has been demonized by the government for the past four years. We all are stressed about money, the security of the nation, our politicians that ignore use, the blatant one-sided criminal persecution, and the perversion of the justice system. So why shouldn’t a right-leaning citizen be suspicious of the government?
 
In the end, the aggrieved citizen lashes out the nearest target. For most, the only negative contact they’ll have with law enforcement is local police. Thus, it’s the street cop that gets the animus that is probably better directed at the President, Congress, the FBI, etc. Psychologists will tell you that anger and lashing out often correlates with a sense of powerlessness. The feeling of powerlessness obviously derives from being marginalized and demonized by the political-economic situation today. People are upset and afraid, so they make snap emotional judgements and refuse to look at more nuanced approaches.
 
So to conclude, I think this incident has become an online way to vent frustration and powerlessness. That is understandable, but to see a crowd that has reasoned out so many other things, has overall correct opinions, only take a purely emotional path and broadly paint an entire system is sad to see. So what is the lesson here? Never, ever comment or get involved in police stuff on Twitter. Just ain’t worth the aggravation. And that’s where I’ll leave this piece, with a tone of decency.
 
 

Yes, that Cresson H. Kearny, from Nuclear War Survival Skills. From his Jungle Snafus ... and Remedies.

 
Imagine if the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel happened in the United States, not in one city, but dozens. And on top of that, the plot was calculated to be as devious as possible, leveraged to hurt America where it was softest. Kurt Schlichter’s The Attack is just that; nearly everything we feared post-9/11 but writ far larger, enabled by our callous and feckless government that has left the border unchecked.
 
There’s a lot to unpack, but I’m only going to cover the high points. Frankly, it took me a while to finish the book and consolidate my thoughts on it. When you live in a world like I do, researching this stuff and having a job that involves bad things happening to people, you get sensitive about reading fiction. So my apologies to Kurt for not wrapping it up sooner.
 
All while reading the book, I felt a sense of rage. The carnage in the story is appropriately outrageous but also the ability to generate strong emotions is a sign that the author did a good job. More than this, my emotions came with the understanding (and fear) that this is indeed plausible. Some disclaimers:

1. I think the scale is improbably large, but this is a work of fiction and we allow “unbelievable” things in fiction to make the story work.
2. I think the reader looking to draw lessons to learn from should look at what happens at a macro level and not as a whole from the work.
3. The unholy alliance thing wouldn’t work out in quite the same way.
4. I am a California State University certified literary critic and literary criticism approaches things differently from book reviewers. This means I don’t go on and on about what I liked and make certain assumptions and arguments about the author’s intentions.

 
The book implies that casualties (both dead and wounded) were in the low hundreds of thousands, without creating a spoiler. Please note I’m taking the story by its spirit and am not offering criticism based on my very high bar of verisimilitude. It’s all plausible; I just think at a much smaller scale, but it’s done well enough that even my borderline autism can accept it.
 
Now I say this part largely to the people who have no real conception of risk analysis, not to criticize the plot. I do not think mass terrorist attacks, with guns and bombs alone, are capable of creating hundreds of thousands of casualties. I know many of you watch Fox News and assume every brown person crossing the border is a terrorist, but that’s not the case. It’s hard to mobilize a legitimate army, let alone one of such size.
 
The 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that were the first “at large” mass shooter style terrorist assault had a kill ratio of 10:1, but this was largely based on target selection that included a crowded railway station and two hotels. The October 7 Hamas attack, despite having approximately 3,000 terrorists to 1,143 victims killed, had a .38:1 ratio.
 
A 10:1 ratio would require over 10,000 attackers. While that number comes across the border in just a few hours, I seriously doubt that many can keep their mouths shut. We’re taking about people who are less-well disciplined than a buck private drunk at a strip club who’s about to deploy. Heck, Al Qaeda tried to get 20 people in to attack the US and only managed to get 19, plus a few other losers who were rounded up after-the-fact.
 
So no, at this scale I can’t see it happening, so even with the millions flowing unchecked across our borders. It’s too hard to get enough people dedicated to that and keep their mouths shut. Plus, the USA is huge in both area and population, so that kind of per capita terror would be hard. I could see the magnitude of such an attack occurring in Great Britain, but not the United States. In the UK, the infiltration of Muslims across society is far greater than the US and in the former, the level of radicalization is much higher. Not that it can’t happen here, but for the same level of permeation it would take more time and great numbers of immigrants.
 
With its head start and the British police unwilling to offend Muslims, plus the practical toleration of radicals in their midst, it is the perfect breeding ground for such an attack. Couple that with largely unarmed police and a disarmed populace and you have a recipe for widespread slaughter. In the US for real, we would probably see a number of attacks across major metro areas, say perhaps a dozen. They may even occur in smaller towns to create a perception of “nowhere” being safe.
 
Kurt certainly carries that across in the book when residential areas are attacked. Again, I don’t think this would be part of anyone’s deliberate plan, but it is useful analogue to things that might happen. For instance, an October 7 cross-border couldn’t really happen in the US the way it did in Israel, but similar events could happen for different reasons. Like the neighborhood attack could be a looting horde of rioters and urban gang members or, in a more dystopian future, racist cartel gangs from Hispanic controlled cities. Or it could be warlords in a James Wesley Rawlesian SHTF collapse (which he did write about).
 
The leftists joining the terrorists? Well the last week’s campus protests certainly opened my eyes to the possibility, although I don’t think such a thing would be pre-planned. Also most of these people are just idiots, not willing to go along with such slaughter for slaughter’s sake. Again, however using fiction as an allegory, what if these dumb kids converted to Islam? Instead of the leftist Weather Underground, they become soldiers of Allah? Or instead of being a Muslim attack on America, it’s a socialist revolutionary pogrom against Republicans or something? Such atrocities have happened in most, if not all, communist revolutions.
 
There are some things I feel Kurt left out. I don’t blame him for some of it. A book can only be so long. Also, Kurt is a legitimate lawyer, officer, commentator, and author; he can’t go to all the dark places that an unaccountable self-published author can. Besides, that’s a good thing. Until now, I’ve always felt “safe” reading Kurt’s books. Kelly Turnbull always saves the day and even the nasty, uncomfortable things that make me as a reader squeamish are handled very softly.
 
Yes, even I who professionally deals with mangled people and horrific stuff get a little soft when it comes to torture, abuse, tragedy, etc. Even though The Attack made me nervous, Kurt wasn’t gratuitous about any of it. Just enough darkness to communicate the emotion and message but also with enough heroism and revenge to rally the dampened spirit. And the part about the .45s? Heck yeah! We would TOTALLY do that. (That part is clearly drawn from how the Israelis responded to the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre).
 
The calls for revenge would be absolutely nuts in the United States. Someone would have to be nuked in reality. Heck, even a president like Obama would probably do it just to avoid a scene out of the French Revolution. Kurt is subtle about it, but it’s clear that America plays by the Big Boy rules after this and is totally unapologetic, as we should be. Our respect with countries like China and Russia, if they had clean hands, would probably ironically go up.
 
The infrastructure attacks are also entirely plausible. I figure in any World War conflict with Russia or China, our power plants, water systems, and communications grid will be hacked and destroyed. Kurt hits the nail on the head with this section and it’s been discussed widely, so we don’t need to go there too much. Just keep in mind that even a conventional war in the 2020s will bring American infrastructure to its knees.
 
Ethnic violence against mosques and Muslims would be commonplace and unstoppable. The fury the American people would pour out would go beyond righteous retaliation to…dark places. Reprisals would be awful in the vein of the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shootings. Predominately Muslim communities like those in Michigan might even come under siege. Police would be too buy responding to the attack, dealing with the aftermath, or otherwise “non-mission capable.
 
The main theme of The Attack is that police are utterly overwhelmed by the scale of the attacks. This is a fair possibility even in the real world due to the nature of police staffing and tactical responses. Smaller cities may take their entire scheduled force for the day to equip the equivalent of one military squad. 8-12 officers for a major city can be the police presence for an entire district/division of a city, meaning that reinforcements have to come from the next one. Then you need officers on perimeter, officers to evacuate the wounded, officers doing crowd control, etc.
 
Also it’s not like a light goes on in these incidents where cops drop their procedures and act as soldiers might. Cops aren’t trained to handle these like spot fires; put one out and move on to the next. Christopher Dorner was one man who tied up LA law enforcement for a week, and when they cornered him, cops had to hold back other cops who wanted a piece of the action. Every cop from miles around will swarm to these scenes and not in an organized fashion.
 
So yes, law enforcement would be rapidly overwhelmed. Most cops aren’t tactically minded nor do they have the mindset of soldiers. Plenty will be brave, but a lot more, even if they don’t chicken out, simply will not know how to respond appropriately. If their agency gave them active shooter training, it’s likely against one loser in a school or something, not a fire team of jihadis. The average beat cop will be ineffective. Look at how badly LAPD was pinned down by the North Hollywood bank robbers.
 
This is where the militia system should fill the gap. If we were a serious country, American minutemen would be able to rapidly respond to the incidents as they cropped up. But we lack any mechanism to organize such a response and most men who have the willingness, and the equipment to, don’t have the training. I’m sure that plenty of veterans or gun-bros would step up and fill the gap, but not enough.
 
We’ve already seen this happen to some extent. During the Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, police reported citizens were attempting to arm themselves from police cars (allegedly Dan Bilzerian) to fight back. When that ex-airman shot up a church in Texas, some dude in town grabbed his rifle and took the loser out. And let’s not forget United Flight 93 where the passengers probably beat to death one or two of the hijackers and almost took back the cockpit with hand-to-hand fighting.
 
America has something that practically no other country, even Israel, has: a very well-armed populace. We have men who make tactical shooting and preparing for events just like this a hobby. Guys would come out of the woodwork to fight back. The shame of it is that our laws prevent the willing volunteers from being better armed and trained as a civilian auxiliary. Even so, anyone fighting back will disrupt the terrorism.  
 
Kurt touched on this somewhat but I feel that the scale of it was less than it would in reality but hey, you can’t cover everything. If police couldn’t control the situation, guys with ARs and plate carriers would enter the fray. I certainly would. Spontaneous self-organization response teams would form as would neighborhood defense groups. Long-term, private tactical response groups would form the way that adult softball leagues do. I gotta point out that the “just respond” attitude for particularly federal law enforcement was great thinking; don’t respond to your office or group, just go stop the killing nearest to you.
 
In fact, this is the entire idea behind the militia concept. Citizen responders with military-grade firepower at home can handle the situation themselves without waiting for SWAT or the military to save them. How many lives would have been saved in Israel if their people had ARs and plate carriers at home? That’s the big take-home lesson from The Attack. At some level, in some places, America will one day soon have something like this occur. It is one of the inescapable lessons of history that barbarians will eventually come.
 
As I’ve said in my own books, fiction can be a way to help us mentally prepare for “unthinkable” scenarios. The Attack should be seen that way by the reader. How would you react? How would you prepare? How will you feel when it or something like it does happen? Let the story tug at your emotions. Feel them. Consider you and your family being in that situation. Can you rise to the occasion? I’d like to think that the book would serve as a stern warning to our officials and authorities, but we all know government is deaf, dumb, and blind.
 
You may also want to monitor Big Country Expat’s blog; he’s also going to do a review and I’m sure he will colorfully express things I wholeheartedly agree with, but in his customary “frank” style. Sometimes you just gotta be honest with how you feel and he’s got a great way of being blunt and true to the emotions. (He also went to an art school so he’s good at the literary criticism thing too).

We actually didn't shoot, despite putting targets down range. Why? No cans, for one. Two, the idiots were actually so close we thought it would be rude to start shooting in the darkness. The morons would have probably been utterly terrified that we were shooting and they would have no idea we had everything under control while wearing NODs.
 
Second, we also had a thought that they might be homeless or at least boondockers, and while fucktards who camp at any time, night or day, on a BLM shooting area, don't deserve any courtesy, disturbing homeless car campers who aren't shitting up the city itself would be too inconsiderate of us.
 
Third, they were outside the ricochet zone but they wouldn’t know that. Also, unlike during daylight shooting, there would be no way to see them and one of the dumbasses might be out in the moonlight without a cheap flashlight to mark their position. Might be bad.
 
Finally, we were up-moon from them, meaning we were backlighted. If they felt threatened and were armed, they had a clear silhouette of us.
 
 
Discretion being the better part of honor, we packed in the targets after we played around with the different settings without firing a shot. I established a rough converging zero on that Somogear fake PEQ-15 I picked up. I have some questions about the illuminator (IR laser flashlight) but need to try it on a moonless night.
 
One thing we noticed that under the monocolor of NODs, a white painted steel target doesn't really stand out. The lasers will reflect off it though.
 
 
So we went driving in the darkness on desert roads. Driving IS possible with a monocular like the PVS-14, but there are a couple of caveats.
1. We had a full moon. Great contrast and the shadows weren't really deep.
2. We left before astronomical twilight was over, meaning there was a lot of sky light available.
 
If you have both eyes open and enough ambient light, your brain will fill in the image well enough to give you some depth perception. I had issues keeping it "between the lines" so to speak but otherwise did fine. Got up to 80 on some sketchy roads. Pretty sure hearing a truck blasting by a high speed in total darkness freaked out the 'tard campers.
 
Also when driving at night you gotta cover up the instrument cluster and turn off the dash iPad, I mean the stereo screen. This isn't a Crown Vic or Tahoe where you can just hit the blackout button.
 
The nice thing about being the driver and wearing NODs is, that unlike my limited professional experience with them looking for agricultural thieves, I can control the vehicle and didn't get seasick. With more practice a passenger shouldn't have this problem either, assuming the driver isn't a jackass or a bad driver.
 
 
As far as my personal PVS-14, well you can see I need to get a better photography solution for it than holding an iPhone up to the eyepiece. The three camera system in the iPhone Pro sucks for this kind of thing.
 
Also the halo (ring around bright lights) are why I suspect this otherwise flawless tube was kicked from the military line to the civilian side. NV tubes for civilians are the ones for the military that don’t make the grade for some reason or other; not quite “rejects” but that’s literally what the engineers call them. All ITT Pinnacle tubes of that era had a noticeable autogate whine but I’ll take that over a big, splotchy black blem any day.
 
 
Lastly, I think I need a 2.26” riser for proper passive shooting through my red dot. The 1” riser didn’t cut it, and the 1.93” was a stretch. BUT the biggest issue was one of focus. NODs can’t really focus on everything like your eye. You can focus to infinity, put on the day cap for a pinhole effect, but neither will make the red dot and the target come right into focus.
 
Again, I’m late to the passive shooting party so I need practice, but I’ve read that focus and aligning a monocular behind the red dot can be challenging so it’s not entirely me. No, active IR won’t get you killed; using it stupidly and without discipline will. But that’s for the book. 😉 Otherwise, it was pretty easy to get the rifle at least up and on target, especially with the laser.
 
And yeah, that Somogear was WAY brighter than the Steiner COBL CQB laser I was using. I could see the dot but not as clearly and it too slightly more mental effort to recognize it. In full moonlight or ambient conditions, I’m going to have to pony up some money for a proper IR laser.
 
Video taken of the valley through the PVS-14 itself using an iPhone.

A link to the Twitter thread if you want more video.