The recent devastation in Missouri has me wondering about something.
Where are our Active Duty Forces to help with situations such as this?
And before you hit me with Posse Comitatus Act nonsense, let me hit you back with this.
The US Military can certainly replicate the assistance given to Haiti and Japan within our own borders can't they? Just like in Japan we wouldn't be going in with weapons...but with self sufficient forces that are able to provide shelter, food and possibly most importantly medical assistance to fellow Americans that have suffered tragedy.
States are already stretched thin. Police and Fire services are being cut back in order to maintain legislatively required balanced budgets.
But possibly more importantly than all that is this....
If the Department of Defense has no role to play in this type of scenario then exactly what is Northern Command all about?
Note: If you're curious about what the current commander of NorthCom is focusing on you can read his blog here. I can give you a quick primer now though. The Admiral is extremely proud of a national level disaster response exercise. My critique stands. What better time to swing from an exercise into a real world situation? Until or unless NorthCom starts helping the American people, its just another command for General level Officers to fill billets.
Note: If you're curious about what the current commander of NorthCom is focusing on you can read his blog here. I can give you a quick primer now though. The Admiral is extremely proud of a national level disaster response exercise. My critique stands. What better time to swing from an exercise into a real world situation? Until or unless NorthCom starts helping the American people, its just another command for General level Officers to fill billets.
Hey, Solomon
ReplyDeleteHere's what I've got. On 1 Oct. 2008, the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team was assigned to U.S. Northern Command, marking the first time an active unit had been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The force will be known for the first year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, and will serve as an on-call federal response force for terrorist attacks and other natural or manmade emergencies and disasters. You can read about this here; http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
The NORTHCOM "About" page reads nicely; http://www.northcom.mil/About/index.html
But, in effect, I do agree with you: NORTHCOM's lookin' a little MIA.
I'm pretty sure the States affected must specifically request the help from the Federal Government. Northern Command just can't go in by itself. I'm sure individuals of local bases can "volunteer" on their own time, but the Base CO/Unit CO's probably can't expend funds unless authorized.
ReplyDeleteRight now the Guard seems to be being used, as it can be activated by the State Governors.
yeah i think alot of it is state sovereignty issues, DOD did come in after Katrina but that wrought so much devastation, i agree the military should be used in situations like this for natural disasters but the governors dont want to give up their power to control what happens in their states.
ReplyDeleteactually i would like to see the military more engaged domestically in some limited roles, i.e. securing the southern border, i think the military is the only entity capable of securing our border with mexico. we use to have troops down there until we pulled them off to fight in WWI, and never put them back. this would mean an exception to Posse Comitatus but congress could give a limited exception to enforce just immigration within a limited distance between the border (like 15-30 miles from internally recognized border), and would only do border patrol outside city limits (except for tiny towns who would be OK with military), then collapse teh border patrol into being the entity which patrols cities with borders, major entry ways and does the legal aspects, i.e. military hands over people coming in illegal over to ICE.
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