Chavez Redux: Part Dux

Yes, I know, I misspelled 'deux'. I apologize to my one other reader if they don't get my lame sense of humor.

I also apologize for continuing a bit off track on the US Presidential Elections, but please be patient.

As I was taking my shower today, I was wondering why Obama would want to create a 'civilian national security force'. What 'national security objectives that we've set' would require a civilian national security force established that is just as powerful, just as well funded as the 5 branches of the US Military? (I throw the US Coast Guard in as a branch.)

I compared this statement to what Chavez wants/is doing in Venezuela with armed Bolivarian circles.

At least Chavez has an excuse (or at least an imaginery one): the ongoing impending invasion by the US imperialists. Chavez has vowed that given such an invasion, the US would meet an armed civilian resistance that would keep them out. Of course, the REAL threat to Chavez and the REAL reason for his arming civilians is that he can't trust his own military - something he should be intimately familiar with as he was thrown in prison in the 90's for helping lead a military coup against the Venezuelan President. But I digress.

Back to the US Civilian National Security Force. What does that mean? And why does it need to be equally funded and as powerful as the US Military?

Of course, like many Obama sound bites, we don't know what he means because he has yet to define it.

Alot of possibilities float around in my head: everything from expanding Big Brother (making the Patriot Act like like a fairy tale), to buffering himself against the US Military knowing his policies may not sit well with military leaders.

The only national security objectives I am aware of currently are ones dealing with the new world rising out of the ashes of 9/11 - global terrorism. The US has yet to suffer another terrorist attack on it's own soil since that tragic day, thankfully in large part to swift action taken by President Bush and the military in taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan and putting Osama Bin Laden on the run. Have we caught bin Laden? No. Has his network been dismantled? No. Has it been crippled? Yes.

So that begs the question - why do we need a 'civilian national security force'? Is our military not already meeting our national security objectives by keeping terrorism out of the US?

It appears to me that if this is to be a civilian force, it is not meant to be deployed overseas. It is meant to act on US soil. For what reason? Don't we already have National Guard units which are at the disposal of governors of the States? Don't cities and counties have police and sherriffs in place to keep the peace and enforce local laws?

Progressives cry foul about the erosion of the Posse Comitatus and Insurrection Acts under President Bush. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 allows "the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of ("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."

Pretty scary, huh? If you listen to Air America, they've made a big deal out of it. I wonder if they are making a big deal out of Obama's comment to raise a civilian national security force, which on the surface has the same potential as the above statements. Something tells me that they aren't.

There are other questions which need asking as well. What would the command structure of this civilian national security force look like? Who would have oversight over this new force? Would they have their own version of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or would they adopt the UCMJ? Would they be used to enforce federal laws?

Of course the main stream media won't ask these questions. They are too busy worrying about who gets to sit on the plane with Obama.