The Geek's Closet of Anxieties Grows

You are no doubt familiar with the Insurrection Act of 1807. Also, you have closely read the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, right?

These two elderly pieces of legislation have stood for over a century in one case and over two in the other as a high wall between We the People and the use of our military forces against us. No more.

The current administration in its never-ending pursuit of establishing a pernicious artifact known as the Unitary Executive Theory has set the long existing protection against the use of the military against the citizens who give it life and nourishment.

Quite a few years ago the Geek was anonymously contacted by some Special Forces NCO's who were involved with the publication of a subversive periodical called "The Ratline." They were concerned about a growing leitmotif in the military.

This bothersome new factor?

An increasing indoctrination within the Army oriented toward overcoming resistance to the use of ground combat personnel and forces against American civilians. A theme these long serving senior sergeants emphasized in their communications with the Geek can best be encapsulated in a question.

"Are you able, if ordered, to use deadly force against family and neighbors if they refuse to hand over their personally owned firearms?"

These sergeants were not alarmists. No more than their comrades both in and outside the Special Forces. No more than their counterparts in the Marine Corps.

When giving a talk at Camp Pendelton, the Geek had occasion to talk at length with several Marine snipers. "The Marine scout-sniper," Tom Clancy once wrote, "is more feared by the enemy than a bomber filled with napalm."

When the Geek finished his conversation, he feared them too.

Why?

Because, as the men calmly told him, they had been strongly indoctrinated to be ready, willing and able to use their highly lethal skills against American citizens. "If the boss man says to take 'em out, we'll take 'em out. Don't matter who the fuck they are. They're all targets to me."

Remember, this was before Afghanistan, before Iraq, before the Great Global War on Terror, before the hideously expansive view of presidential power espoused by the Cheney-Bush Administration.

These encounters (and several others like them) took place while Bill Clinton was in the Oval. They occurred while a parade of diaper brigaders hostile to the military traipsed through the halls of power in the Pentagon and the EOB. They took place in the good old days of progressive, peace-love-and-flower-power government.

With this background, the Geek watched the the Insurrection Act and the Posse Comitatus Act slip, slide and flow away like the dikes and berms of New Orleans in Katrina. He watched with mounting trepidation the erosion of centuries of barrier between Army and citizen under the impact of the National Response Framework and National Security Presidential Directive #51 (also known as Homeland Security Directive #20).

As the current administration has long taken the position that the president is the sole decider of what he is Constitutionally obligated to do (or not do), the potential for abuse of the military forces of the US grew astronomically. There is nothing more dangerous, the authors and proponents of the Constitution argued on the basis of experience than a Chief Executive (magistrate they called him) with the unchecked royal prerogative to use the military whenever and against whoever he might chose.

The split between the Congressional power to declare war and the Executive's authority to conduct war was one response to the ever present danger of an expansive understanding of Presidential prerogative(s). The passage of the Insurrection Act of 1807, which narrowly and specifically defined the conditions of armed political unrest which allowed for the use of Federal military force, was another. Even though the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was part of the cheap and unenlightening bargain that assured the victory of Rutherford B. Hayes over Democrat Samuel Tildon, it was a well-intentioned, well-crafted prohibition against the use of the military in American streets except under closely controlled and limited conditions.

Say good bye to all that.

Just as the waves of Katrina washed away and flooded over the berms protecting New Orleans, the massive changes in the powers of the presidency driven by the hurricane winds of Cheney and his neocon associates undercut and eroded the barriers erected by the Constitution and prior laws protecting us from the possibility of the guns of our military being turned against us at the ambition or fear of a president.

On 1 October 2008 the vibram of Army boots was placed to march on the streets of any of our towns whenever the Commander-in-Chief says, "Go!"

The 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) was placed under NORTHCOM, the Northern Command.

NORTHCOM does not exist to protect the US against attacks by Canadians or Inuits. It is not in place to guard the Alaskan frontier against North Korean or Russian threats.

No. The area of operations for NORTHCOM is the continental United States (CONUS). Stood up in October 2002, NORTHCOM was established to provide "command and control for Department of Defense homeland security operations."

With the addition of the 1st BCT of the 3rd Infantry Division, NORTHCOM has something very real and very threatening to command and control.

Army sources ranging from the Army Times to NORTHCOM spokesman, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Goodpaster, have played soothing mood music and uttered soft and reassuring words. The 1s BCT which has been in Iraq controlling "unruly" crowds and kicking in doors is said to be standing by to perform humanitarian relief operations in the wake of natural disasters and to manage the consequences of a WMD attack by terrorists.

Humanitarian relief? "Consequence management?" By a combat experienced infantry unit?

Just who in hell do the powers-that-be think they are fooling?

Engineer units would be believable in the roles mentioned. So also would quartermaster contingents. Certainly medical formations would fit the described mission.

But, an infantry combat brigade?

The mission of the infantry is to close with and kill the enemy in close combat. Infantrymen are well trained and equipped for that mission as well as its corollary, occupying land and repelling attacks.

Infantrymen are trigger pullers whose weapons are quite lethal. Far more lethal than those possessed by their predecessors in Vietnam let alone ancient conflicts like World War II.

If butts are to be kicked and names taken, the infantry is the right choice, the best choice. They are not social workers, relief workers or consequence managers.

In its initial report on the transfer of the 1st BCT to NORTHCOM, the Army Times stated the unit "may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control." This burst of accuracy and candor must have annoyed someone topside as NORTHCOM issued a speedy correction. The command assured us, "This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control."

This statement of good intentions sure makes the Geek feel a whole lot better about life. There must be some really, really omniscient folks running NORTHCOM to be so certain about the intentions of the current administration--and all future administrations as well.

Unless and until either Congress or the Supremes vitiate the encroachments of the once discredited Unitary Executive Theory, we are unsafe. Unsafe from our own military.

Regardless of the assurances provided by the mood music producers of NORTHCOM, the old protections of the Insurrection and Posse Comitatus Acts are a pair of filleted fish rotting on the dock of history.

The current president or the next can pick up a pen, sign a "finding" and issue and order as Commander-in-Chief through the SecDef to NORTHCOM, and the boots of the 1st BCT will be on the back of your neck.