One of the important founding traditions of this country is that of seperation of military, civilian and police powers.  In fact, one of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights is specifically dedicated to this:

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Most people today don't worry about a soldier knocking on their door and demanding to be given food and shelter for an unspecified period... but there was a time in our history where this was common place.  It was common place for them to kick you out of your home while they use it.  Others are perhaps more familiar with the Posse Comitatus Act.  Posse Comitatus was passed after the Civil War, and was intended to create a "wall of seperation" if you will between civian policing and the military.  It says that except by a specific act of Congress, the military are barred from acting in a law enforcement capacity.  Changes were in fact made to this in 2006, as well as the Insurrection Act, that would have made it even easier to break down this wall, but thankfully they were repealed a year later.

The reason for all of this is simple.  The police are tasked with serving and protecting the people, us.  The military is tasked with destroying the enemy, them.  We train the police, or at least ought to, not only how to stop and investigate crime, but also what limits they have in order to protect our civil liberties.  Of course in practice the police often times don't respect those liberties, or view them as a hinderence to their job, but in theory they are supposed to.  The military on the other hand have no such training.  Their job is to accomplish whatever military goals they are ordered to, with minimal losses on their side, and if possible the other side as well, but that's a secondary consideration.

In times of National Emergency, we depend on the National Guard... citizen soldiers.  They are called upon by state governors to help, mostly in the case of a natural disaster like major floods or hurricanes.  Their time on station is limited, and they are often times trained specifically for this task.  Of course, the goal of having a seperate National Guard is lost on many people these days, as guard units are Federalized more often to serve in foreign combat zones.  They are becoming less and less citizen soldiers, and more into regular army with all of their inherent problems when they are deployed at home.

So what is all this leading up to?  Well, it seems that the Defense Department is doing away completely with the idea of only using the National Guard at home, and starting next month will begin deploying active duty army forces at home.  No... seriously:

The 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they're training for the same mission - with a twist - at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
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It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
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In the meantime, they'll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it.
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The 1st BCT's soldiers also will learn how to use "the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded," 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.
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The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.
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The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced "sea-smurf").

The Consequence Management Response Force?  I didn't realize George Orwell wrote for the Army Times.  Maybe their first "training mission" will be in Chicago.  Or perhaps they'll start being used in drug raids.  And Sea-Smurf?  Really?  Are they going to wear Blue Helmets?

It's one thing to have the legal framework in place such that you declare marshal law (we've had that for more than a century).  It's another to train and make so many plans for something we intend to be such a rare event to this extent.  This type of planning and deployment sends the wrong signals, and is often times used as an excuse to use forces anyway at a later date when its not appropriate.  That's how the misuse SWAT teams began.  Cities justify their existance by talking about the need to stop rare armed stand offs and terrorist attacks, and then all of a sudden they're being used to serve search warrants on non-violent suspects, because as long as we have them, we might as well use them.

It concerns me that we choose to federalize more and more of our National Guard units for foreign deployment.  They are the units that ought to stay home in case of national emergency.  It seems stupid to me to send our National Guard units away, and then use regular army units here.  That is exactly backwards of how it should be.

This is some potentially fucking scary shit.  Via The Agitator.