Thousands of Uniformed Troops Deployed Here?

by Michael G. Mickey
(12-2-08)

The opening of a Washington Post article:

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.

When we recently learned of Barack Obama's planned civilian national security force, it raised concerns, but this? What could this mean?

Perilous times

Regardless of why the United States would see a genuine need to deploy 20,000 uniformed soldiers for service inside our own borders when we already have civilian law enforcement and the National Guard, it speaks to the dangerous world we presently live in.

In Scripture, 2nd Timothy 3:1-5, we're told:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Reading this is like looking at a snapshot of the world around us, isn't it? Amen, but what is the truth - the bottom line truth - behind dedicating this kind of division-strength force for service inside the continental United States? That's the question on my mind - and the minds of others.

Preparedness against external threats or something else?

While the government's states position is these forces are going to be here to protect us from terrorists potentially armed with weapons of mass destruction, we're one tiny step away from becoming a police state if the wrong person, whether it be Barack Obama or any other sitting president, decides to use those forces in a manner other than what we're being told they're going to be.

Someone sent me a transcript of what Glenn Beck had to say on his show yesterday, some excerpts of which I'm going to share with you to think on. Sometimes we are so caught up in the drama of all that is going on in this wacky world of ours that we tend to roll with the flow, skimming over issues like this when maybe, just maybe, we should pause for a moment and ask ourselves, "What, exactly, is the deal here?" Here's some of the transcript of Glenn's show:

"I told you this story two months ago? Was it two months ago, Joe, when I first found this story? And I said on the air this cannot be true. It can't be true. The only source I could find on that day was in Stars and Stripes and I knew that Stars and Stripes wasn't going to print something about the troops that wasn't true, and I brought that story to you. Now, these guys are being deployed for security for chemical, biological, terrorist activity, natural disaster. But this is what the National Guard is for. The reason why our founding fathers said there would be no standing army is because the federal government has no place in your town. The power to order troops, the power to be able to have people with weapons in your neighborhood must not ever be in the hands of the President or the congress. It must be in the hand of the individual governors. Our founders knew this. 20,000 -- this is a battalion. This is something entirely new."
"This is for domestic security. Well, what exactly is domestic security and how many steps does it take before you say domestic security is for martial law? What has to happen? Does anybody see the powder keg that we're sitting on? We are sitting on a powder keg. All that somebody has to do is do something stupid and the place goes up like a match. And I'm telling you our government knows."
GLENN: Gang, I warn you fascism is coming and it has nothing to do -- listen to me carefully. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama. Remember this has happened under George Bush's watch. I am not a conspiracy nut. I don't believe in the Star Chamber. I don't believe that there are things going on where these dark meetings are happening. I don't believe any of that. People just keep taking steps one after another because we have to do this. Somebody knows that we are sitting on a powder keg in this country. Somebody knows that we better take precautions because this thing, with the economy -- I'm telling you, I am telling you, I hope to God I'm wrong. I hope in twelve months, A, I'm still on the air; and B, that I can come to you -- mark this -- Stu, you have your calendar. Put this in your calendar.
STU: Okay.
GLENN: That I hope I can come to you today and say -- I mean a year from today I want to be able to go on the air and say I was wrong about the economy; it looks exactly the same as it did last year. I hope to God I can say that to you, but I'm telling you alarm bells are going off in me and they are getting louder and louder and louder and I don't think you are going to recognize this country or its economy next year.
"You have something like what happened over in India a year from now and I think even today, this country has a possibility of turning on itself and we must root ourself in the Constitution. And listen to me and please preach this, say this as much as you can to anyone that listens. This is not a Democrat/Republican thing. This is not Barack Obama is the bad guy and George Bush was the savior. George Bush is the guy who started this ball rolling and Barack Obama is going to continue rolling it. This is the Democrat/Republican political parties both taking us down the same d*mn road. This is both of them. This is not a problem with the Republicans, it is not a problem with the Democrats. It is an American problem, and Americans will need to solve it. Americans are going to have to solve it by standing their ground. Americans are going to have to say "Excuse me?" And you will not be able to do that unless you are -- unless, A, you know what we are, you know who we are, you know what we're founded on, you know what the Constitution says. Gang, eternal repercussions if we lose liberty. Eternal repercussions. It is in our -- this is our watch. You are a watchman on the tower if you see it coming. The blood of everyone who you could have woken up and said "Storm coming" will be on your hands. If you ring the bell, if you say to people "Prepare, find who you are, find out what we are, keep peace in our heart. Please don't tear each other apart. When an event happens, be a peacemaker."
"As I said at the beginning, I hope to God that I'm wrong, and with God's grace and with Americans being Americans and Americans really saying, "Okay," without the tragedy, because this tragedy comes, whatever it is, God help us all, it is going to change things in the blink of an eye, if we can just be those September 12th people, before the tragedy. We're going to be fine. We're going to be fine. But we are so fragile right now, and I don't care what they tell you. They ain't preparing for another Hurricane Katrina. The Pentagon is deploying 20,000 troops inside the U.S. for domestic security. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to figure out how that one works exactly, and that's not Barack Obama doing it. That's George Bush doing it. How exactly are we deploying those troops? Are they under the President's power? Because I don't want George Bush or Barack Obama, I don't want Ronald Reagan controlling the troops inside the country. You don't do that, period. The federal government does not deploy troops for domestic security. The governor does it with the National Guard. They answer to the states. You cannot allow them to have that control. If our federal government, God forbid we get our hands on a dictator, God forbid -- and I know people said to me ten years ago, "Oh, Glenn, we'll never..." gang, we're on the eve of it. I'm not saying it's Barack Obama. H*ll, it could be Sarah Palin in four years that does it. But I'm telling you we're on the eve of fascism. And if you give these people power now or in the next two weeks, the next four years, the next eight years, I'm telling you, you get the wrong person in there and you get a crisis situation and that person can grab power."

Be prepared to be a peacemaker

Church, returning to Scripture and our role for a moment, we know that perilous times lie ahead for us if the Lord tarries much longer so how should we prepare ourselves, spiritually at the very least, for what may come?

One of the most important things we can do right now as Christians is to be watchmen on the wall for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Remarkably, many of our own are wandering around in a daze, even as we see events like this that tell us, regardless of why the U.S. is taking this dramatic step, our world is becoming a very dangerous place with no let-up in sight. Getting our brothers and sisters in a mindset of spiritual preparedness that anything may occur soon, whether it be the Rapture of the Church or the detonation of a nuclear bomb inside our borders, is a step in the right direction.

Secondly, beyond getting everyone's heads out of their cell phones, e-mails, and the daily grind long enough to consider what they need to do to be prepared spiritually for what may come, we need to be a step ahead of the pack, prepared to step up to the plate in the event our godliness is needed to calm a storm that could destroy our republic quickly.

In a crisis scenario of epic proportions, Christians, both through prayer and example, could be the difference between a wonderfully free society self-destructing and all of us - the people - wrapping our arms around one another and vowing to love one another and persevere against any threat presented against us.

As Glenn Beck put it, we need to have a September 12th mentality right now because we are truly a fragile and divided nation - more than I can ever recall being true before. Because this is true, if something disastrous happens this side of the Rapture of the Church, may those of us who well understand that perilous times are part and parcel in our world from this point forward be ready to be spiritual leaders and peacemakers if we need to be.

Matthew 5:7-9:

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Be prepared for anything, surprised by nothing!

Remember, fear not! Our redemption draweth nigh!

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