This new blatant violation of posse commitatus is still quite disturbing. The military has shown that they will absolutely follow orders when they are ordered to disarm and otherwise trample the Liberties of American citizens. They happily disarmed residents of New Orleans by force of arms. None of them defied their superiors and said no. NONE. None of them were ever charged with a crime for this illegal and unconstitutional act. NONE. They followed orders without question. When they’re told to do such things again, and they will, they will follow orders just as they did before.

No good will come of this. None. It will end in bloodshed. Hopefully republicans will be the first ones to feel the jackboot on their neck as armed troops kick their way into their homes. Republicans are the ones who enabled these sorts of things with the war on drugs and the panic of terrorism. They were the ones who championed the patriot act and the war on drugs. They deserve to be the first victims of their own creations.

Scott I spent several years on active duty also. That was my first thought too. The last thing that I or any of the soldiers I knew wanted to do was police US citizens. Most were just there for the GI Bill anyway with no intention of re-enlistment.

And face it, once officers achieve a certain rank they ARE politicians. So no big loss there. That leaves the 20yr lifers and ofcourse, my favorites, the MP’s.

Isn’t this what the national guard does already?

It’s what the national guard SHOULD be for. The people who want this realize that it’s easier to order non-local troops to abuse the populace than it is a local militia soldier who has to live and otherwise make a living in the community he’s being ordered to violate.

I’m willing to say that there’s probably a 50% chance that I’ll live to see martial law declared in some US cities within my lifetime. That percentage keeps going up with every new bailout package our government gives out. They’re going to destroy our currency and that will lead to chaos.

If the stated number is 20,000 a good rule of thumb is to double or even triple that to get to the actual operational number. Because units are going to likely find a ton of money in the form of Homeland Security training budgets with which to, notionally, train for actual, ya’ know, military activities under the purview of this program. That’s how you get things like the anti-drug JTFs in which regular military units “train” alongside the DEA, ICE, etc.

The result, in my admittedly Pollyana-ish view, will be a significant increase in the number of resigned commissions and enlisted folks refusing to re-enlist out of sheer disgust. This will probably be reported under the guise of our military being racist and unwilling to serve under an African-American president.

What you’ll be left with is a solidly politically-motivated officer class (even more so than it currently is) and an NCO corps comprised largely of careerists who adopt the “I’ve already got ten years in, only ten more and I get a pension” mindset.

This is such an awful idea that it could only have been borne from government minds.

So while I hope my brothers and sisters in uniform

I agree with the assessment that these forces will be used for drug policing, border security, etc. I’ll go one better, and say that these things will happen much sooner than 5 years from now. I wager that in 5 years, the number of soldiers will have gone from 20,000 to 50 or 100,000!

It will go something like this: “well, we haven’t had another terror attack, so we’re going to use these soldiers to look for drugs, etc. After all, we’ve got to keep them sharp for when the REAL ATTACK occurs…” And if we DO have a terror attack (God forbid), the same logic will apply: “well, we’ve gotta keep ‘em sharp, as this last terror attack proves!”

I’m also concerned that since they’re using units from the reserve component, they’ll begin psychological operations against the citizenry. Currently, PSYOP soldiers can are legally constrained to use their dissemination media ONLY to aid in giving instructions during a disaster. That is a rare occurence, anyway, as they’re very busy in the Middle East. What happens when the war’s over and they come home? When will helpful information become harmful disinformation?

This murder of Posse Comitatus is sick. Period. If indeed the terrorists “hate our freedom” (I don’t believe that’s their primary motivator at all – read ‘The End of Faith,’ by Sam Harris for more on this), they couldn’t have come close to the excellent job of dismantling it that we’re already doing for them! Without real freedom, our enemies WIN and WE LOSE. PERIOD!

I hope this younger generation can live in freedom and peace, but it’s looking more and more unlikely with every passing day. I fear for them. All I can say is I’m glad I’m out of the Army, because those soldiers may very well face some tough decisions on whom to use deadly force against in the near future…

Oh, that’s right…….NONE of BO’s policies will be allowed to fail. Boy, this is going to be an entertaining two years……..

Wow. That’s all you got? Hope?

How does one quantify hope? What is hope worth?

Time to declare bankruptcy, if hope’s all you got.

Because prohibition worked so well.