Sherry Chandler

Worrisome things

At a time when Suburban Guerrilla is speculating about a coup like the one planned against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934, I don’t like to see articles like this:

Senator Patrick Leahy is concerned about the Pentagon’s decision to designate an Army unit to Northern Command.

On October 1, the Pentagon, for the first time ever, dedicated an Army force specifically to NorthCom, which is in charge of securing not some foreign region but the United States of America.

The unit it assigned is the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, which has spent three of the last five years in Iraq. It was one of the first units to get to Baghdad, and it was active in retaking and patrolling Fallujah. One of its specialties is counterinsurgency.

This marks a change for NorthCom, which was established on October 1, 2002. Its website still says it “has few permanently assigned forces,” and that “the command is assigned forces whenever necessary to execute missions, as ordered by the President and the Secretary of Defense.”

Leahy “asked for a briefing from his staff” on this development and “wants to monitor the situation,” an aide to Leahy said.

Leahy was instrumental in getting Congress to repeal the “Insurrection Act Rider” in the 2006 defense appropriations bill. That rider had given the President sweeping power to use military troops in ways contrary to the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act. The rider authorized the President to have troops patrol our streets in response to disasters, epidemics, and any “condition” he might cite.

Leahy said last December that this rider “made it easier for the President to take over the Guard and to declare martial law.” In a Senate statement on April 24, 2007, he cautioned against inserting the military “into domestic situations.” As he put it: “One of the distinguishing characteristics of the United States is that we do not use the military to patrol our communities and neighborhoods.” A few months before that, he warned that we must ensure that “the military is not used in a way that offends and endangers some of our most cherished values and liberties.”

The repeal of the rider was signed by Bush on January 28, though Amy Goodman reports that “Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal.”

Patrick Leahy is not some winger kook.

And Bush’s signing statements are an outrage against the rule of law.

Most of the Bush administration has been an outrage against the rule of law.

Matthew Rothschild, author of this article, concludes like this:

The Pentagon’s decision to dedicate the First Brigade Combat Team to NorthCom has raised alarms, especially in the context of the current economic crisis. In Bush’s National Security Presidential Directive 51, he lays out his authority in the event of a catastrophic emergency. In such an emergency, “the President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government” and will coordinate with state, local, and tribal governments, along with private sector owners of infrastructure.

NSPD 51 defines a catastrophic emergency as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”

Notice the use of the word “or” above. In our current circumstances, it might be more relevant to read the definition this way: “any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of . . . disruption severely affecting the U.S. . . . economy.”

President Bush could declare a catastrophic emergency today. And he’d have the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, well trained from its years patrolling Iraq, at his disposal here at home.

Speculation about a coup may be paranoid thinking brought on by eight years of a lawless government, but to station an army on our own soil at the disposal of any president, any president, is asking for trouble.

Consider the prospect of Sarah Palin with a domestic army at her command. You betcha!

In response to Rosalie’s comment, I have reconsidered this last remark. It was a cheap shot, and it violates my own standards: of not demonizing Sarah Palin or indulging in sexist attacks. I saw that done to the most accomplished woman politician of our time and I don’t want to do it myself to another of whatever stature.

And for that matter, it amounts to using scare tactics, which I despise. (Same as demonizing, I guess.)

When my in-box is flooded with Palin attacks, it’s difficult not to succumb, to go along. So it may also work for all those folk bombarded with “Obama is a Muslim.”

While it is easy for one of my convictions to view Palin as the worst case — in effect, putting her in office as Rosalie says — the truth is that Obama is also an unknown here. The President of the United States of America has an obscene amount of power. I do not want McCain, Palin, Obama, Biden, McKinney, Nader, or Ron Paul to have command of a standing army within our borders.

Possibly related posts:

The ACLU on Northcom’s fighting unit

An Armed Diplomacy?

Not MY commander-in-chief

Quoting Goldwater

Mercenaries by any other name…

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