DISQUS

Bob Spuhl · 1 year ago

While I applaud the effort to ensure our civil liberties remain forefront in our minds, we must be careful that conspiratory minds don't get too carried away. Our military forces are trained to engage with the enemy and fight in a CBRNE environment on a large scale. Our civilian forces are not trained or equipped to perform their tasks in a CBRNE environment on a large scale. There is somewhat of a gap in the military 'skill set' operating in a foreign hostile CBRNE environment and how they'd operate in a domestic CBRNE environment...requiring additional training. Obvious intelligence concerns have highlighted such a need. So why not just train local, state and domestic 1st responders? As we've found since 9/11, a flood of money to local, state and federal agencies has created thousands of disimilar capabilitie and equippment quite often non-interoperable. When looking at a federal response to such a situation it only makes perfect sense to place such a response capability upon the shoulders of the military.

George Dance · 1 year ago

That's precisely the problem; that "military forces are trained to engage with the enemy." The U.S. population is not the enemy, and that's why using the military can be inappropriate. Add in the executive branch's idea that "domestic military operations" are immune from the Bill of Rights, and one doesn't need a "conspiracy mind" to worry about what that could lead to.

michael_carr · 1 year ago

Re: Greenwald... It's Glenn Greenwald, and he is a columnist for Salon.com (not "Slate")

Ernest Luning · 1 year ago

Oops. Thanks, fixed above.

LES REYNOLDS · 1 year ago

Perhaps a Brigade of ACLU members should be organized to respond to an attack on the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction. They certainly seem to have all the answers to every situation. Name me one organization in the U.S. that has the capability outside the Department of Defense to properly respond to an attack in which hundreds of thousands of our citizens could be casualties. Sometimes, you have to look beyond the trees to see the forest.

Cincinnatus · 1 year ago

I am in the military, and I will say if I am ever asked to 'police' or 'pacify' any of the citizenry regardless of crisis, I will not. I have an oath to protect the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. An abuse of Posse Comitatus is a direct violation of that very oath. As a citizen I will help, as a soldier, my uniform will hang in the closet until an enemy outside our Republic attacks us.

George Dance · 1 year ago

Perhaps a Brigade of ACLU members should be organized to respond to an attack on the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction.

LOL! "Nuke us and we'll sue your butts off!"

One Eyed King · 1 year ago

"In The Kingdom of the Blind, The One-Eyed Man Is King"

Be your own king. Prepare yourself for what's coming. Apathy and/or disregard for the obvious is no longer an option. You will be detained if you resist. They are bringing in 20,000 plus troops, which I'm sure those numbers will increase as the economy continues it's swan dive into the abyss. Originally it was just 3,000, now it's up to 20,000. Some unclassified reports, which you can find for yourself, list possibly 300,000 to half a million. This is not a "theory" of "conspiracy", it's right in our faces. You would be strongly advised to make preparations for long term survival off the land. The time is 11:59. Be ready to defend yourself or be ready to be detained. They practiced with Katrina & Ike, and now they're going to making their moves on the public within the next 4 years.