In this article, I’ll explain why some subterfuge can be a good thing and some implications for present-day news reporting.
Many of my friends and acquaintances are terrible liars. I don’t mean to imply that my friends tell a lot of lies. However, they often tell the same lie consistently, and quite frankly it is not a very good lie. So, they are just not very good at telling that one lie.
A couple of reasons why I am lied to so often is because I live in a community with many military retirees and I worked for nearly 30 years in the defense industry. Many of the employees in the defense industry came out of the military – and they often told lies as well.
Many of these individuals I knew were in the military for more than 20 years. And they would tell me what he did in the military. However, quite often, I didn’t think they were telling the truth.
As an example, about 18 months ago, one gentleman (a sailor) who I met a social function, was talking to his friends and he explained that he was leaving the country. He went on to say that his mail should be sent to Nicaragua. Someone asked if he was going to be in Nicaragua and he said “No, I’m not going to be in Nicaragua”. He then went on and said “No matter what anybody says, I’m not going to Columbia”. He then went on and repeated, “No matter what anybody says, I’m not going to Columbia”. Now, if you ask me where he was going, I would guess it was Columbia.
I happened to be with the same group of friends, a little over a year later, when this gentleman came back from wherever he had been. He proudly stated when asked where he had been, “No matter what anybody says, I wasn’t in Columbia”.
There is an expression that goes “I think he doth protest too much”. If you asked me, I suspect this gentleman spent a little over a year in Columbia. Of course, I am aware that we had military operating in Columbia to fight against the drug cartels.
I also had a number of individuals flat out tell me that they couldn’t really tell me what they had done “in the service”.
I also spoke to one lady who explained that her husband (a Navy chief) was going to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, to teach accounting to the Army. I happen to know that this particular individual had never taken any college classes (including accounting classes). So, do I think that the Army searched all over the world trying to find the best possible accounting teacher and decided to hire a Navy guy with no accounting background? Sure, I believed that…
After this individual retired, I understand he was hired as a contractor by the Navy to teach accounting. Sure, I believe that too…
The only thing that really bothers me about all this lying is individuals would think I’m stupid enough to believe their stories.
Of course, I know that the military often comes up with cover stories for the protection of their personnel. So, they are not really stories made up by individuals. These stories are really made up by the military to protect the servicemen and their families.
There are bad people in the world who would do bad things to our servicemen, if they found out what our servicemen had done during their careers. So, it’s a good thing these individuals have as a story (or a lie) about their military careers.
I think I understand, just a little, what it is like when you can’t tell people what you do. I worked for a government contractor years ago – in my youth. One project I worked on lasted about a year and was “secret”. So, for a year I couldn’t tell people anything that I did for a living. Later, most of the secret stuff I knew got released and published when that particular project was going up before Congress to get funded. The capabilities of that weapon systems were publicly discussed and most of the information was declassified and published in Newsweek magazine.
In my case, I was never issued a cover story, I just couldn’t talk about what I did. It was strange when I met new people and they would ask what I did for a living. All I could say was that I worked for a government contractor and I couldn’t talk about my work. It always felt strange to say that, and people’s reactions showed they thought it was strange as well. It’s hard to build relationships with others when you are being evasive about yourself.
I really kind of feel sorry for many of these individuals that have to lie. I suspect that many of them did a lot of things that might have been worthy of note, perhaps even worthy of praise. But we will never know what they did. While I understand, that it is for their safety, it is still unfortunate that they don’t get the praise they deserve.
On occasion, I felt sorry for the individuals who were not telling the truth. Once, the spouse of a serviceman talked about her husband having posttraumatic stress disorder. And of course, the official story is that his career was dull and boring.
There are probably a lot of servicemen who can’t talk about what they did during their careers. I always try to treat servicemen with respect and thank them for their service. Some of them may have risked their lives, doing what they did, to protect our lives and we will never know it.
And That Brings Us to Today (and why subterfuge can be a good thing): Lately, on the news, there are a lot of people complaining about, or screaming about the fact that ICE agents might wear masks and hide their identities.
I remember the first time I saw police officers wearing masks. Of course, it turned out I was wrong – I thought they were police officers – it turned out they were British Special Air Service soldiers. A group of terrorists had seized the Iranian Embassy in London (April 30, 1980) and taken 26 hostages. Fearing for the safety of the hostages (after the terrorist started murdering the hostages) the British government order an assault (Operation Nimrod) on May 5 by the Special Air Service antiterrorist unit. This was arguably the most famous counterterrorist operation in British history. I remember at the time being somewhat perplexed that I could not see the faces of the police (I later learned they were actually soldiers).
As it turns out today, the norm is for special operations soldiers to conceal their identities as this prevents attacks/retaliation on them and their families. I say this is the norm in almost all the countries around the world. They follow this process/procedure to protect their personnel. This is the normal, “right thing” to do to protect special operation soldiers.
And, just as we might want to protect our servicemen from harm, I think we also have to protect our law enforcement professionals from any potential harm.
Whenever we see a law enforcement professional with a mask on, it might be wise to remember that they are doing something that is likely more dangerous than anything we will ever face. They are placing themselves in greater risk to perform their duties and protect society.
Some of the individuals they are arresting are members of international drug gangs, or terrorist organizations. Those groups often kill the police officers, prosecutors and judges in their own countries. It is certainly conceivable that those criminal organizations may want to reach out and attack officers and/or their families here in the United States. Because these ICE officers are placing themselves at risk, perhaps they deserve to be given both respect and appreciation – and allowed to wear masks.
what does this mean for Preppers/Survivalists?
Of course, most of the people in the prepper/survivalist community are already aware of this. However, many members of our society have never heard of this before. Unfortunately, those people often think that the only reason to wear a mask is because you’re doing something wrong. And this has become a political issue. However, in this case, wearing a mask is doing the right thing.
We often make plans for those instances when a disaster occurs. And, as we think about those instances, we often think that most of the things we prepare for are beyond our control. But that’s not always true. If were talking about a breakdown of society or an increase in illegal activities or violence there are things that we can do. One of the most important things we can do, to hold back the slow disintegration of society, is to support our law enforcement professionals.
As members of the prepper community, if you hear individuals talking about how bad it is when law enforcement officers wear masks, please help educate them. In all likelihood those masked law enforcement individuals are risking their lives to help defend our society from evil.