Bringing the war home.(Insider Report)

"Preoccupied with the war in Iraq and still traumatized by Sept. 11, 2001, the American public has paid little attention to some of what is being done inside the United States in the name of antiterrorism," noted military affairs analyst William M. Arkin in the November 23 Los Angeles Times. "Under the banner of 'homeland security,' the military and intelligence communities are implementing far-reaching changes that blur the lines between terrorism and other kinds of crises and will break down long-established barriers to military action and surveillance within the U.S."

Air Force General Ralph E. Eberhart maintains that the military must start paying more attention to "the home game," which means being ready to provide "military assistance to civil authorities." Gen. Eberhart is the commander of Northern Command, the military's homeland security branch. Mindful of the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the use of the military to "execute the laws" within our borders, Gen. Eberhart told the House Armed Services Committee in March: "We believe the Act, as amended, provides the authority we need to do our job, and no modification is needed at this time."

But the problem with that assurance, notes Arkin, is that "amendments approved by Congress in 1996 for that earlier civilian war, the war on drugs, have already expanded the military's domestic powers so that Washington can act unilaterally in dispatching the military without waiting for a state's request for help [as the Constitution requires]. Long before 9/11, Congress authorized the military to assist law enforcement officials in domestic 'drug interdiction' and during terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, the president, after proclaiming a state of ...