Reviews are in:
Let military be military
The Bush administration said the threat of catastrophic terrorism requires a review of the Posse Comitatus Act, and the reviews have been pouring in. Coming from left, right and in between, they have a message that can be summed up in two words:
Forget it.
Politicians, pundits and others have said the administration should take any notion of further military involvement in domestic affairs and stuff it in a trash can.
It’s heartening that so many people from all sorts of political outlooks have this feeling, a legacy, perhaps, of the founders. They didn’t much like the idea of having any standing army at all in times of peace, although the Posse Comitatus Act was not enacted until 1878. The post-Civil War South was more than a little weary of federal troops helping to enforce the law, and Congress said civilian officials could not call on the Army for that kind of help anymore.
The law is narrower than some seem to think, it has a variety of exceptions, and this administration is scarcely the only one in recent times to suggest tinkering with it. President Bill Clinton wanted to soften it to cope better with terrorism and eventually got some of what he sought. Under President Ronald Reagan, an exception was granted so the military could help curb the drug traffic.
Presidents have long had the right to call up the military to cope with national emergencies, such as putting down riots.
President Dwight Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock to enforce racial integration of schools.
The concern of many of those speaking out is that President Bush may have it in mind to use soldiers for non-emergency law enforcement, and some make the point that soldiers are trained to kill, not to investigate crimes and make arrests. The fundamental fear — and it is a legitimate one — is that civil law could become martial law and this land of the free become a land of the intimidated if the principle behind the Posse Comitatus Act is not carefully observed.
The mere fact that the Bush administration said laws should be reviewed “to determine whether domestic preparedness and response efforts would benefit from greater involvement of military personnel” is scarcely reason to think American liberties are under assault. But the White House should understand that any specifics it comes up with are going to be subject to highly suspicious scrutiny.
From the Abilene Reporter News.
