The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 according to Pentagon officials. The justification for the combat troops is said to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe.
There are, and should be, strenuous opponents to this plan from both the left, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the right, the libertarian Cato Institute. Both ends of the political spectrum should be alarmed by this unwarranted expansion of executive authority.
The Constitution was written with the intention of having civilians in control of the military, not the other way around. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 12 placed a two-year limit on spending for the army as a measure to insure civilian control of the military.
This tradition persisted throughout American history.
Any new law alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president’s power to deploy troops within the United States. That law has long allowed the president to mobilize troops only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”
Along these lines, the Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces except when they are impressed into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.
The National Defense Act of 1916 made each State's militia (volunteer army) a part of the National Guard. Each State's National Guard is under the command of that State's governor; but Congress has given the President the power to call those units into federal service under exceptional circumstances, such as during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, when necessary (Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16). I also read the 3rd Amendment, the quartering of troops amongst civilians, as another indication that the Founders were wary about having combat troops amongst the general populace. The U.S. has had a long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.
The unprecedented nature of the 20,000 troops combat troops should be clear. Troops returning from urban warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan are being re-deployed in America.
The question is why?
There is no insurrection currently and the National Guard along with law enforcement agencies have traditionally provided security. Why does the U.S. government feel compelled to place so many combat troops in the general population?
Domestic deployment appears to be an expansion in presidential and military authority. Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.
The troops are here already. The first reaction force is built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics. The troops are on a one-year domestic mission.
Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.
Since 1 October 2008, the US Army announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), as an on-call federal response force for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
This marks the first time an active U.S. Army unit will be given a dedicated assignment to NORTHCOM, where it is stated they may be "called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) attack." These soldiers will also learn how to use non-lethal weapons designed to "subdue unruly or dangerous individuals" without killing them, and also includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and beanbag bullets. However, the "non-lethal crowd control package [...] is intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S.
Uh huh.
Even government officials are noting the extreme measures. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response--a nearly sevenfold increase in five years--"would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," stated Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense. Even McHale stated that this was "a fundamental change in military culture."
The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.
If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.
Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.
In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents."
In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces.
Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat--pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively.
Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, seemingly now retained by The Elect, ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.
Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.
Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time.
Is it happening to America?
"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman, and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland."
Adolph Hitler
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