For the first time since the civil war, according to Democracy Now, the US Army will have a permanent mission in the US.
The "battlefield," if you will, will be our country.
Interestingly, this mission starts 4 weeks before Barack gets elected -- on October 1st.
links and you tube video below.
I'm sorry if this had been diaried already. If it was, it needs more attention because a DKOS addict like myself didn't know until i started my once a week browse of the "Most Viewed" page on youtube.
This item was most clearly written in this article
While active-duty units previously have been used in temporary assignments, such as the combat-equipped troops deployed in New Orleans, which was effectively placed under martial law in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this marks the first time that an Army combat unit has been given a dedicated assignment in which US soil constitutes its battle zone.
The Pentagons official pronouncements have stressed the role of specialized units in a potential response to terrorist attack within the US. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, attended a training exercise last week for about 250 members of the unit at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The focus of the exercise, according to the Armys public affairs office, was how troops might fly search and rescue missions, extract casualties and decontaminate people following a catastrophic nuclear attack in the nations heartland.
Here is Amy reporting on it at DemocracyNow
and finally here is the best possible spin from the army times:
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.
After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.
emphasis mine.
I think this is an extremely troubling development. Coming between a well thought out (engineered, really) economic crisis and a major election.
Yet, only blogs and DemocracyNow (all using the ArmyTimes as a source) are covering it.
I usually do not go for conspiracy theories. But I'm not as trusting of our government (I am a former Bush supporter) as I used to be. No one would have believed the NSA was listening to us, and reading our emails, without warrants 5 years ago either.
I do want to be clear that I dont' think "Martial Law" is imminent, as the silly youtube poster titled the above video. But I do think a slight amount of unrest, an inappropriately violent reaction from the government, and even more protests could tilt the election.