Posted on 09/28/2005 7:12:53 AM PDT by kellynla
With the president's suggestion that the military should play a bigger role in future major emergencies, he has set in motion a cascade of policy shifts that, if reaching fruition, may shake the Pentagon to its foundation and recast the lines both between the states and the federal government, and between civil and military domestic jurisdictions. It might not be too portentous to say that many serious people may see such a policy shift as having constitutional implications.
On its face, the rightness of the idea seems obvious. In extreme emergencies, state and local governments are not up to the task. Only the federal government and, specifically, the military have the resources, personnel and logistic capacity to act effectively.
In Katrina's aftermath, the president's critics (and many of his friends) blamed him for not stepping in and taking command soon enough. But if ever something were easier said than done -- such prompt presidential pre-emption would be it.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Does this include pre-emptive strikes on other countries, also?
Sorry, but I oppose this completely. Undercuts possee comitatus (sp?). Does anyone here want Hillary with that sort of power?
In Katrina's aftermath, the president's critics (and many of his friends) blamed him for not stepping in and taking command soon enough.
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Yes, the "conservative" feds should have had the insight to KNOW that a liberal local and state "government" was always going to fail. Just as it did. I also agree with Brown that LA was/is totally dysfunctional -- but that should have been predicatable from the get-go.
I can think of one person who does. Hillary! I recall she proposed repealing Posse Commitatus.
Do you think the looting and shooting at rescue workers in New Orleans as sufficient to invoke the Insurrection Act. If it were invoked, the military could be used without the governor's consent.
Oh please...Posse Comitatus is about preventing search, seizure and arrest, IOW, law enforcement by the military, it has nothing to do with disaster relief and rescue.
The PCA does not apply to the U.S. Coast Guard in peacetime or to the National Guard in Title 32 or State Active Duty status. The substantive prohibitions of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) were extended to all the services with the enactment of Title 10 USC, Section 375. As required by Title 10 USC, Section 375 the secretary of defense issued Department of Defense Directive 5525.5, which precludes members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps from direct participation in a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity unless participation in such activity by such member is otherwise authorized by law.The PCA generally prohibits U.S. military personnel from direct participation in law enforcement activities. Some of those law enforcement activities would include interdicting vehicles, vessels, and aircraft; conducting surveillance, searches, pursuit and seizures; or making arrests on behalf of civilian law enforcement authorities.
The country is hell-bent on turning into a soft fascist state.
I think a better solution is to organize FEMA in a military like fashion, perhaps under the Coast Guard. Clear chain of command, moblization processes, comms gear, etc. Personally, I would like to military to keeps it's full attention on those that wish to kill us.
Could you imagine the liberal caterwalling had we seen video coverage of a bunch of battle ready Marines descending upon NO and possibly shooting a US citizen in NO? The military is trained to kill enemy combatants, not hand out bottles of water after a hurricane. As good as the military is, a humanitarian relief operation could be built to be much more suitable to the task. It only need borrow the command and communication abilities from the military. Even the military equipment is built for killing.
Do you seriously think the US would send in military units to perform relief work unarmed? Not even side arms? In New Orleans, snipers on the ground were shooting at unarmed National Guard helicopters. Do you think the feds would order regular army helicopters to not return fire? Part of the job of sending in the military is to restore order. That is police work.
I agree with you, Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama managed to evacuate their states; just have they have successfully done for years; so why should be throw the baby out with the bath water just because Louisiana had a couple of buffoons for Governor and Mayor of N'awlins.
Police work is for the local authorities...they could have coordinated their efforts with the DoD to insure stability in the region. The solution would have been as simple as putting some armed NO cops on the helicopters or sending in the NO cops ahead of the military to secure the perimeter. Not to mention the fact that if NO had actually had those 700 non-existent cops, they wouldn't have had such a problem. Someone needs some serious jail time over that one.
They ARE talking about policing those areas, arresting, surveilling, etc.
"Do you seriously think the US would send in military units to perform relief work unarmed? Not even side arms? In New Orleans, snipers on the ground were shooting at unarmed National Guard helicopters. Do you think the feds would order regular army helicopters to not return fire? Part of the job of sending in the military is to restore order. That is police work."
I hate to say it but this was simply not the case. The media simply became hysteric but 99% of the reprots the media treated as real were simply BS
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002520986_katmyth26.html
"They" may be talking about it. The President has not come up with any details, so "They" have not a clue what the President's intentions are. Therefore, "They" are scaremongers that are purely speculating. Until "They" get solid evidence of nefarious intentions on the part of the President, "They" should STFU.
Maybe YOU should relax as well.
I wasn't talking about what allegedly went on in the Superdome. I was talking about National Guard helicopters whose crews reported being shot at. I think they are much more reliable witnesses. Furthermore, after the army came in there were incidents in which snipers shot at people in the army sent do perform relief and rescue missions. There were several stories posted on Free Republic about eight snipers who were killed by the army after they started firing at the army.
Seems the DNC Talking Point memo has been sent out to all the usual suspsects. Intresting that the very people who spent the 1st two weeks of Sept screaming at Bush for doing "Too little too late" now are so hyper hysteric in their fears about the Pentagon.
So you're another one of those "The government failed, so give it more power" types.
NY handled 9-11. FL, SC, NC, AL, MS, and TX all handled hurricanes. OK handled tornado's, OH handled floods, OR and WA handled wildfires, MN handled blizzards, MO handled ice storms, and CA handled earthquakes.
We don't need to give the Federal government, FEMA, or the military any more authority over the States. We do need to assess what happened in LA and carry away the hard lesson that it does matter who the citizens elect to local positions. We also need to take that knowledge and act on it each and everytime we vote in local elections.
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