Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bacasper]

Don't you feel better knowing the martial law will occur under Obama?

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

By Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 1, 2008; Page A01

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change in military culture," he said.

more at link

[Kuros]

This is a good thing.

Those soldiers need to follow protocol, however.

[sharkey]

the police state has concluded, now it is the military state.

one of the steps of fascism .. have fun guys

[mises]

[sharkey]

[mises]

[Cornfed]

I guess Blackwater will need all the help they can get stuffing people into debtors' concentration camps.

[Kuros]

[Gopher]

[sojourner1]

I agree with Gopher. America is in the position of becoming more laid back, cool, down to Earth, more modest, hard working, risk taking, and more truthful to the fact things are not as grandiose as we'd hoped. The country is also demanding that marijuana be legalized and when people get in trouble for other crimes, they be helped to pay their dues, not put on probation that renders them unemployable. The way it's been, one little white drug charge or anything showing up on a police record renders you practically unemployable for life which leads you to steal and give up on life since you're broke with your probation officers making threats of sending you to the pen if you don't get a job soon. Problem is no one is hiring those with a police record and those staying clean are having many employment and money problems now. I was so lucky to stay out of trouble while all my friends and so many people acquired police records while the police just preyed upon young adults. In small towns, especially in the North, it's a police state of oppression with little or no opportunity for young people. Needless to say, my rich friend go off scotfree of drug and DWI charges and now has his own business since his daddy took care of business for him.

With accepting our failures and the fact we're just human and we all make mistakes, I'd think we're going to start taking a more tolerance approach and not have a police that hunts and preys upon young people. I was a good kid they always had in their sights. Well, my thief brother didn't help to make things fair as they were counting on bagging me as a criminal. When I was 15, the juvenile PO trumped a phony charge on me saying I stole a $10 used bicycle, but my public defender negotiated for me to take a lie detector test so I took it and passed. I then told the PO officers at the exit how wrong they are in pursing me as I"m a good kid minding my own business and doing good in school. I only hope they stop this nonsense that's been going on.

[bacasper]

[moosehead]

duh - how about they just bring home the National Guard and let them do what they are trained for - like helping victims of hurricanes, etc.?

[sharkey]