Just when I thought the Bush administration couldn’t have been worse, it turns out that it could have been worse. Much worse. According to the New York Times, Bush seriously considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo area neighborhood to apprehend the Lackawanna Six.
From the New York Times:
Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials.
Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants.
Mr. Bush ultimately decided against the proposal to use military force.
The absurdity if all this is that there was absolutely no reason to even think of doing this. We dedicate a massive amount of our resources towards having civilian domestic law enforcement. Not only do we have civilian police at the local and state level, we have law enforcement at the federal level such as the FBI. We spend billions of dollars a year to have civilian law enforcement in this country, one of the main reasons is so that we don’t have to have our military going around the country acting as a police force.
I have to wonder, would American troops follow an order to engage in combat on U.S. soil? That’s what it would be, combat. It’s a scary prospect to think that the U.S. military could be used on American soil.
Lee B.
/ July 25, 2009Uh… American troops have already been used on US soil- and it was creepy. I had to travel on business after 9/11- armed soldiers in train stations., and in the airports. I was in the military for years, but as a civilian this felt very, very strange seeing these uniformed US troops where police should have been.
Rick
/ July 25, 2009Yeah, but those were guardsmen under the authority of their governors. At least I think they were. It was a long time ago and contrary to what I once read on a redneck’s bumper sticker, I have already forgotten about 911. :)