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Dug...

Partner, you read a whole lot of things into a post that are not there, no one else seems to see them. As far as military matters go, what you say sounds very scary to me, and I would suggest caution if you ever think of over riding civil rule. You scare me. I was military once and never met anyone like you.

My friend: You said: "Arrest Ridge for not caring a damn about individual freedom and the constitution." Now, just where did I: "read a whole lot of things into a post that are not there, no one else seems to see them." when I noted that suggesting that a rethinking of a law is not a violation of the constitution?

Now, as for the fact you think I'm scary ("You scare me. I was military once and never met anyone like you."), I would suggest that a military that would stand idly by and let millions die rather than violate Posse Comitatas is "scary".

But, let me clairify. Certainly civil forces should be the first line of defense, but suppose some scenario where no civil forces are available and you have the power to stop a WMD attack that is imminent. If you act millions are saved. If you don't act, millions die. But if you act, Posse Comitatus is violated. Would you save millions and risk a jail sentence? All I'm saying is that most officers would act.

"As far as military matters go, what you say sounds very scary to me, and I would suggest caution if you ever think of over riding civil rule. You scare me. I was military once and never met anyone like you."

I hadn't really studied Posse Comitatus before and I'm certainly no expert now but there is a wealth of information available on the web that you might find interesting.

One of the things I've learned is that I'm on very firm legal grounds. You see this act does not prohibit the exercise by the military or the president any constitutionally granted powers. Or to say it in an other way, Posse Comitatus does not prohibit the military from taking action to defend the United States or it's citizens. Meaning that in the scenario I described, the military would be free to act and that any officer who claimed that he could not act because of this act would be derelict of his oath and duties. A moments reflection should confirm this. How can an Act of Congress nulify a power granted by the Constitution? It cannot, therefore the military would be free to act in that scenario.

That said, I agree with you that Posse Comitatus doesn't need to be further weakened by more exceptions. (You might wish to read up on the extend of the existing exceptions.) The military has no business in becoming involved in matters that properly within the scope of civilian law enforcement. Any politician that thinks this act needs to be revised is simply wrong. If anything (and there is a rather nice but long CATO paper on this) this act needs to be strenghtened by reducing the number of these existing exceptions.

One other little thing I learned in my research that I think you'll find troubling. This act prevents the use of the Army and Airforce in civilian law enforcement. There is no prohibition on the use of the Navy. Since the Marine Corps is a part of the Navy, our politicians can use the Marine Corps to do anything and everything prohibited to the Army and Navy.

PS. Don't tell Ridge about the Marine Corps. I doubt the politicians will figure that out on their own.