There are (or were, 5 days ago) a lot of threads questioning whether or not the Civilian Reserve Bush proposed in the State of the Union is an attempt to establish some sort of mercenary force. After reading the State Dept. draft proposal (
http://proceedings.ndia.org/6100/russell.pdf) I do not believe this is in any way what the Civilian Reserve is intended to do. I believe it is an attempt to create a readily available occupation government, something much like the Coalition Provisional Authority during the first year of the Iraq war.
The proposal calls for the enlistment of both the kind of specialists that made up the CPA and the kind they often found themselves without. The vast majority of the Civilian Reserve jobs to be filled are not military (although it does call for 600 police) but urban planing jobs and the like. Many of the jobs can specifically be linked to problems the CPA had trouble dealing with.
This raises a few questions that I don't think anyone is asking. First, while I support this idea on some "be prepared" level, I do wonder about the need for a permanent occupation government on standby. This should not be the kind of thing a nation should find itself in frequent need for. Second, the Civilian Reserve would not be fully ready until at least a year after Bush leaves office. My (and I'm sure many others) gut reaction is to see this as a Bush/neocon play to leave the necessary tools in place for when their next ideological ally is elected.