Is this what is happening in this country and to us? Peter
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between the lines Joseph Farah Obama's 'civilian national securityforce'
Posted: July 15, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
© 2010
With all the reporters covering the major presidential candidates, itamazes me no one ever seems to ask the right questions.
For several days now, WND has been hounding Barack Obama's campaignabout a statement he made July 2 in Colorado Springs – a statement thatblew my mind, one that has had me scratching my head ever since.
In talking about his plans to double the size of the Peace Corps andnearly quadruple the size of AmeriCorps and the size of the nation'smilitary services, he made this rather shocking (and chilling) pledge:"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve thenational security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civiliannational security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just aswell-funded."
Now, since I've never heard anyone inside or out of government use thephrase "civilian national security force" before, I was more than alittle curious about what he has in mind.
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Is it possible I am the only journalist in America who soughtclarification on this campaign promise?
What does it mean?
If we're going to create some kind of national police force as big,powerful and well-funded as our combined U.S. military forces, isn'tthis rather a big deal?
I thought Democrats generally believed the U.S. spent too much on themilitary. How is it possible their candidate is seeking to create somekind of massive but secret national police force that will be evenbigger than the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force put together?
Now, maybe he was misquoted by the Congressional Quarterly and theChicago Tribune. I guess it's possible. If so, you would think he wouldwant to set the record straight. Maybe he misspoke. That has certainlyhappened before. Again, why wouldn't the rest of my colleagues show somecuriosity about such a major and, frankly, bone-chilling proposition?
Are we talking about creating a police state here?
The U.S. Army alone has nearly 500,000 troops. That doesn't countreserves or National Guard. In 2007, the U.S. Defense budget was $439billion.
Is Obama serious about creating some kind of domestic security forcebigger and more expensive than that?
If not, why did he say it? What did he mean?
So far, despite our attempts to find out, the Obama campaign is nottalking.
At this point all I can do is enlist your help – and the help of everyother journalist who still thinks the American people have a right toknow the specifics about a presidential candidate's biggest and boldestinitiatives before the election. I also want to ask radio talk-showhosts across America to start asking this same question. I have afeeling if others join our quest, we might yet get clarification on thisproposal from Obama.
Who will Obama appoint to administer this new "civilian nationalsecurity force"? Where will the money come from? Where in theConstitution does he see justification for the federal governmentcreating such a domestic army?
The questions are endless.
But before we can hope to get to the specifics, we need much more in theway of generalizations from Obama.
Certainly there have been initiatives like this elsewhere – Cuba, theSoviet Union, China, Venezuela, North Korea. But has anything like thisever been proposed in a free country?
I have a feeling there would be more questions from the press if Imyself had proposed the creation of something as preposterous as a"civilian national security force" than there has been about thisproposal by the presidential candidate currently leading in most of thepolls. I'm quite sure I would be hung out to dry as some kind of Nazithug. Meanwhile, Obama makes this wild suggestion and it is met with acollective yawn from the watchdogs.
Help me out here. What am I missing?
Can I get a hand?
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