Just a quick FYI on what Posse Comitatus is–it’s an act that was passed into law back in 1878 and it keeps American military troops from enforcing the law. This law is a good thing because it stops the USA from being a military dictatorship. If the military enforces the law and not a civilian police force, that’s exactly what you have. Sure, we may have elected Obama and our local officials, but the guy who decides to pull you over for a speeding violation might be holding an automatic rifle. You’re going to do whatever that military person dictates.

All that said, let me direct you to a few headlines from ThePete.Com over the past month or two:

US Army to Be Used Inside the US

More On the Status of Posse Comitatus in the US

That first post was about how military troops would serve on active duty to support local authorities in times of disaster or a terrorist attack–but specifically, they are to be trained in dealing with “unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.”

In other words, during times of emergency, they’ll be doing things the police normally do.

The second post is about how the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has begun active duty inside the US–this was back in early October, by the way.

The third post goes talks about Democracy Now holding a debate on the subject of Posse Comitatus and military troops on the streets of America.  I added that mission creep might occur and these soldiers would go from playing police during an emergency, to playing police full-time after the disaster is done.  Seems reasonable to assume mission creep is a possibility, since we went into Iraq for the WMDs and didn’t leave when we found none.

Late last night, at 2:45am I saw a Reuters.com article and felt compelled to write a post with this title:

Chances of a WMD Attack in a big city better than 50%??

The Reuters article reported on the claims of a task force–they said that there’s a better than 50/50 chance that a major city in the world will be hit by a WMD terrorist attack.

Then, yesterday, fellow Pete, Peter Santilli, of PeterSantilli.com, Twittered a link to a WashingtonPost.com article with the following headline:

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

Yep, apparently 20,000 more USGIs will be added to active duty on American soil by 2011. Here’s a cutting from that WaPo article:

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response — a nearly sevenfold increase in five years — "would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change in military culture," he said.

So, what changed here with the non-military culture (us)? Was there really less hatred for America before 911? That would strike me as impossible since, if people didn’t hate America before September 2001, 911 would never have happened, right? So, why are our values suddenly different? Why are we suddenly OK with troops serving inside America’s borders?

3000 people died on 911. That’s less than the number of American soldiers who died in Iraq. It’s nothing compared to the number of Iraqis died in our invasion of their country–yet, here we are accepting a virtual military dictatorship, but only in the case of a "nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe," say Pentagon officials.

And what an amazing coincidence that a task force announces that they feel some major city in the world has a better than 50 percent chance of being hit by WMD when they did? Isn’t this just perfect timing for the military, the politicians and the military industrial complex?

Lots of money to be made in the fear industrial complex!

Now, I don’t think 911 was an inside job, but I do think it was a virtual inside job–that is to say that I think 911 was allowed to happen. What kind of leaders ignore the obvious signs that something like this could happen? We don't need a police state to be able to scramble fighter jets that can intercept hijacked aircraft. We don’t need the Patriot Act to stop known terrorists from entering the country and taking pilot lessons. We just need our leaders to do their jobs.

That’s what upsets me the most in all of this–the Home Minister of Mumbai resigned after his mishandling of the Mumbai Attacks last week. Have we had one person resign in shame because of 911? And now we’re supposed to assume that the same people who let 911 happen are going to not screw this up, too?

And what about Obama’s supposed “change we need”? Well, his cabinet is made up almost entirely of Clintonites and you may recall that they were in charge of America until just eight months before 911 happened. So, it’s a cross-partisan breakdown of leadership.

What can we do?

Beats me, man. I’m just a blogger.