San Diego Union Tribune: Even in disaster, military is not for police work

[question everything]

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Posse Comitatus

Even in disaster, military is not for police work

September 26, 2005

In the 1998 film "The Siege," terrorist attacks in New York City prompt officials to do what was, up to then, the unthinkable: call out the Army to hunt the terrorists and perform acts of domestic law enforcement. In one memorable scene, an Army general played by Bruce Willis warns the politicians that this is not the way to go.

"The army isn't a scalpel," says the general. "It's a broadsword."

(snip)

At the White House, President Bush has said that Congress "needs to take a look at" how the military can be used to react as a first-responder, including possibly as a police force, in the event of catastrophes. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is said to be considering making a variety of changes in how the military could be used in domestic emergencies. And in Congress, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants to revisit the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of federal troops in domestic law enforcement. The law was originally enacted after the Civil War when federal troops were deployed south of Mason-Dixon to police the elections of confederate states and maintain law and order. It was recently called "very archaic" by a Pentagon spokesman.

Actually, it isn't. The law is still as relevant as ever, and it's worth preserving. Government should keep its hands off.

(snip)

We give the military all the credit in the world. But that doesn't mean we think the time has come to change a law that has served us well for over a century and unravel a protocol that has been weaved into the fabric of this nation. There is a good reason why the military is not called to domestic law enforcement. Armies are trained for combat, and schooled in the dirty but sometimes necessary business of making war. They are not meant to police U.S. citizens, or to patrol the streets and neighborhoods of the United States.

Don't take our word for it. Listen to what Lt. Gen. Honore tells his troops as they march through the streets of New Orleans. He tells them to keep their guns down because, "This isn't Iraq." Indeed, it isn't. Besides renting more movies, it looks like the politicians should also talk to more soldiers. And then do exactly as they say.


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http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050926/news_mz1ed26botto.html

[GetTheRightVote]

1. The states must take center stage over the feds unless a request is made

but it is and must remain within the local and states power to run their own local communities or we will be handing over all that we hold dear, our homes, our children, to a government which has proven it will not answer our call unless it serves them first, the power and greed which has taken over this country thru * and his admin would ignore all humanity without a very large checkbook.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[DinahMoeHum]

2. Best argument yet to retain the Posse Comitatus Act. . .

and not screw around with it.


:evilfrown: