Pentagon to detail plan, plan would dedicate 20,000 uniformed troops inside U.S.

[okirun]

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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.

The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.

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If you are a part of a civil liberties group or a libertarian, how do you feel about this?

Do you think it's wise? What do you think?

[kidflash2008]

The military is part of the defense of this country. Terrorist groups are not a part of this country, so the use of the military is warranted in those cases. I also believe the National Guard should help with border security, but I draw the line with our troops stationed in our own cities.

[Mingus]

It is my opinion that we aren't under any threat, unless it's by domestic terrorists - which is astronomically small in chance. Afghanistan may have been the place Bin Laden was (who died anyway, due to kidney failure), but it posed no threat. Neither did Iraq, if the letter from Saddam is to be trusted. No country, but Russia, North Korea, and China would do anything to the US. We'd totally annihilate North Korea, if the Chinese don't take them out first, but the other two basically keep our government in check.

[mich@el]

Originally Posted by Mingus

It is my opinion that we aren't under any threat, unless it's by domestic terrorists - which is astronomically small in chance. Afghanistan may have been the place Bin Laden was (who died anyway, due to kidney failure), but it posed no threat. Neither did Iraq, if the letter from Saddam is to be trusted. No country, but Russia, North Korea, and China would do anything to the US. We'd totally annihilate North Korea, if the Chinese don't take them out first, but the other two basically keep our government in check.

The US and before that the USSR couldn't and cant make any headway in backwater Afghanistan. What makes you so sure the US could "annihilate" anyone let alone North Korea? While the US wants to be all powerful and makes noises to that effect, the reality is quite different.