Ability of the US Gov (state and federal) to deal with invasion by teleportation

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Pretty much unconnected. The reason you would use trucks instead of tracks is because tracks tear the hell out of pavement and no-one wants to deal with resurfacing that many streets.

Lack of ammo for grenade launchers suggests some things they didn't bring because they didn't expect to need them. Also I've heard stories of National Guard units being short night vision goggles. Also also, I don't think gas masks are standard for modern military. That's because chemical weapons, even tear gas, are strongly taboo in modern military conflicts. Ergo you don't bother unless you have specific reason to fear chemical weapons may be used (as in the invasion of Iraq). Which may (somewhat counterintuitively) mean local law enforcement will sometimes be better prepared for chemical warfare than the Nat. Guard.

If you wanted the thing to be a bit of a snafu, I think you could justify that within 24 hours of the crisis becoming publicly obvious, there might be 10k national guardsmen on the scene, in addition to local law enforcement, but only 30% of LEOs and few guardsmen would have gas masks, and only 70% of guardsmen and a few LEOs (mostly SWAT) would have night vision. So a better-prepared enemy attacking with chemical weapons at night could gain a large advantage.