20K US troops to be deployed domestically

20,000 military conducting a New Orleans airlift immediately after Katrina could have saved hundreds of lives.

You're training them for combat, and you're training them for interacting with citizens at home who have constitutional rights and where the rules of engagement do not have you responding with overwhelming force.

The police have been acting like the military for a long time now with no-knock warrants, "dynamic" entry techniques and using SWAT teams for trivialities (and generally ignoring the civil rights and dignity of their targets in the process). So what's the big deal about using the military? The spirit behind the posse comitatus act has been dead in this country for decades.

While it cannot ascend to the resonant heights of its Roman inspiration, it will have to suffice: "Hail Caesar! We who are now imperial subjects salute you!"

Of course, Healy is perfectly, unimpeachably correct, but then again, the very notion of routine domestic deployments for Army brigades is of a piece with the risible one-percenter mindset of large swathes of the political and military establishments, according to which even the statistically negligible probability of the apocalypse warrants the subversion of the Constitution, international law, the very rudiments of morality, and any other tradition or custom that might derogate from the majesty of the imperium. All of this will be defended by the usual suspects of the pseudo-right, with arguments more or less reducing to the wan consolation that, if one is not plotting a terrorist assault, one has nothing to fear: Power is never abused, and is always fully rational and accountable, provided we embrace with ever-increasing fervency the obscene secret supplement to our constitutional order. If that sort of thing is "conservatism", what is the point? We should just concede that the New Left was right in '68 and write off the last 40 years as a multigenerational hallucination.

Shorter Larry: We've been urinating on the Constitution and trampling the rights of Americans for decades already, so why not accelerate the operational tempo?

All of this will be defended by the usual suspects of the pseudo-right, with arguments more or less reducing to the wan consolation that, if one is not plotting a terrorist assault, one has nothing to fear: Power is never abused, and is always fully rational and accountable, provided we embrace with ever-increasing fervency the obscene secret supplement to our constitutional order.

Not just "the right". After all I have not heard a peep out of the so-called left in Congress about this, and I don't see Obama falling all over himself in his rush to overturn this misguided mess, either. There is no real "right" or "left" in American politics, only the blue faction and the red faction. Either are equally willing to grind their boot in your face.

I for one welcome the ruling junta, and I won't miss my third amendment rights at all.

That being the only one we have left, after all. It would have been nice to keep it around, just for old times sake.

Yeah...

Wow...

I can think of dozens of quotes from many distinguished characters in history on why this is a REALLY BAD IDEA.

We've rioted in the streets for less.

Or come TO? Oops.

I thought the posse comitatus act prohibited the military from civilian law enforcement activities?

What's happening in our country that's so bad that we need military troops deployed? If it's a border thing, just increase the Border Patrol and Customs/Immigration manpower. Beef up the FBI. Maybe create a homeland security force, like we did with air marshals and the TSA. All of that would create more jobs.

I'm an Army vet served in Vietnam.

I support Obama and somehow, I don't think this is going to fly. Or we are not understanding what the role of these troops would be.

As the Republic dies, the Imperium is eager to deploy the legions domestically to secure its power. Any of the Founders could have predicted this. A standing army deployed at home against citizens is precisely the sort of thing that would provoke men of their stature to subversive and radical acts such as destruction of property (Boston Tea Party) or even taking up arms against the legitimate government (Bunker Hill, Lexington, Concord). Bad, bad, bad idea.

Are the troops being "deployed" in the sense of posted someplace on active duty you would not normally expect to find troops? Or is this just Black Helicopter paranoia based on the fact that we are beginning to drawn down our forces in Iraq and some of the troops are being brought back to their usual bases stateside?

"As the Republic dies, the Imperium is eager to deploy the legions domestically to secure its power. Any of the Founders could have predicted this. A standing army deployed at home against citizens is precisely the sort of thing that would provoke men of their stature to subversive and radical acts such as destruction of property (Boston Tea Party) or even taking up arms against the legitimate government (Bunker Hill, Lexington, Concord). Bad, bad, bad idea."

I agree. This is insanity, and would have been grounds for one of Jefferson's " every twenty year revolutions" back when the American people still were taught civics and history in school.

There's a reason no military needs to be deployed in the US. We have our own guns. That's how "free state" has "security".

Or, perhaps Obama thinks he'll need to be defended from the Peasanst with Pitchforks after they found out how royally screwed he intends to make the country.

Will they be issued brown shirts?

Jon, we have two bases nearby, one an Army National Guard (helicopters) and the other an Air National Guard (fighter jets) base. I am quite familiar with the various aircraft operated out of these bases, especially as the Army National Guard base is two miles from my home. I've seen many choppers flying in and out of there, and I have never, before last summer, seen any unmarked, black choppers. I don't know what if anything it means, but it seems odd to be flying unmarked aircraft over civilian backyards in Oregon.

MI- A most basic lesson of COIN, is that you need a legitimate government to support. I cannot off the top of my head remember any successful insurgency in the setting of a legitimate successful government. A rogue general is nt likely to accomplish much.

Your other points are good. I tried to briefly allude to them. A politicized military is a more realistic threat. That already exists. If you read Powers' book on genocide, she documents how the military deliberately dragged their feet to undercut Clinton. The military had wargamed Iraq and knew they needed at least 300k troops, yet they went along with Rumsfeld and Cheney's plan, perhaps helping the politicla party they preferred.

I have long supported the idea that senior military should be apolitical t the point that they should not even vote. Besides the basics of ego and power, politics and (now) money are too likely to end up being an influence on men whose primary duty should be towards their country and their troops. The new NSA, James Jones has made an effort to remain non-affiliated. He was the one who told Pace to stop acting like a parrot for Rumsfeld. I have some real hopes for the guy.

Steve

Scott Walker, I'm trying to remember if any of our helicopters are marked at all in Iraq. I don't think they are. They fly with lights down at all times, so I might be wrong, but I don't remember any markings. Probably that's just a combat procedure, and the birds you saw are prepped to go over there. As far as practicing, yeah, that's legit. Our training grounds are often disconnected from the main base. They were probably going to practice fast roping, rappelling from helicopters. The goal is a controlled, but quick arrival in hostile or precarious territory. And not to go down headfirst at full speed having forgotten how to brake, if you ask one of my buddies about his stint in that kind of training. ;) At any rate, military aircraft don't have to stay in their training areas. It's different for us ground-pounders. Sometimes Fort Drum gets so snowy, we have to take a road through local villages to get back to the main base. We have to get authorization from every level of the military hierarchy, PLUS coordinate with local authorities. It's not the norm. (Transport convoys are different, you'll see those on any road next to a base.)

Um, as far as I can tell, the 20,000 soldiers are just on recall in case something happens. They aren't changing their overseas deployment plans or anything, and I doubt they are even changing their training, as there's precious little time for that in the one year we get at home between combat deployments. It's just a plan in place.

Traditionally, the National Guard would be the units on standby for just such a scenario. But they are so over-used from overseas deployments, and are so rarely re-fielded equipment which has been procured for combat operations, that they often can't realistically respond to a major emergency. The 39th Infantry Brigade, Arkansas' National Guard, just returned from deployment. It takes a unit in the 10th Mountain Division, one of the Army's top three active duty units, about six months to get all our equipment back and fielded after a tour in Iraq. It's a year or more before we get the personnel we are supposed to have, by the books. I'll bet it takes the National Guard three times that long to get back to strength. THAT'S why the Active units would be on standby.

By the way, yours truly may very well be a member of the Arkansas Guard in about a month. They've guaranteed me that if I serve a year there, I won't get recalled or deployed, and that will complete my military service obligation. Whereas, if I do not, I end up on the Individual Ready Reserve rosters for 18 months. You can get called up from there for a whole new tour in Iraq, plus training time, even if you are at month 17!

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