The initial amount called in for the "riots" on the 6th were about 500. They quickly bumped those numbers up to 6,200, then 15,000 and now 20,000. Big deal right?
To put this into perspective, when units deploy overseas, they generally deploy on the battalion or regimental level. You have your individual person, multiple people make up a squad generally around 10-15, multiple squads make a platoon, multiple platoons make a company, multiple companies make up a battalion, multiple battalions make up the regiment or brigade, multiple regiments or brigades make up a division. The battalions generally range from a few hundred to a 1,000 troops and the regiments are 3-5k troops. A division makes up 10-15k troops.
We officially have enough to make up at least 1 very large division or 2 smaller ones currently in, or being sent to, our nations capital.
This is the same amount of troops we had in Afghanistan back in 2004.
20,000 troops in DC is a staggering amount. So the next question is...why? They will not be the ones doing the arrests when they go down. Which means they are there to stop the unrest that comes afterwards....or if the arrests don't come at all. This means they are either there for us, or them...Since President Trump is the one with the sole authority to order them into DC...I like our odds of who they are there to stop from rioting.
Why wouldn't they be the ones doing the arresting?
They would not put that responsibility on any big army or similar type soldier. Poorly trained, likely to fuck up, et cetera. In Iraq/Afghan big army does the meat and potatoes type stuff. Checkpoints, presence patrols, guard duty, support operations, their are more selectively trained organizations (you know of alot of them) that do the hollywood stuff.