Should this be a concern?

I first read about this in a link from the Times Watch site and actually wondered if it was a legitimate news story or a fabrication by conspiracy theorist alarmists. So I researched and found the original Washington Post article, subject "Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security" by Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson, Post staff writers, posted December 1, 2008. Here are excerpts from their report:

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Further Hse and Tyson note:

Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.

"There's a notion that whenever there's an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green," Healy said, "and that's at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace."

McHale [Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense] stressed that the response units will be subject to the act, that only 8 percent of their personnel will be responsible for security and that their duties will be to protect the force, not other law enforcement.

Writing at infowars.com, Paul Joseph views this development with concern and perceives a potential threat to "Section 1385 of the Posse Comitatus Act [which] states, 'Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.' "

I'd really appreciate your comments on this topic. Leave a comment here on the blog or email me if you have any thoughts about this. Thanks.   /sl