Homeland Security: Soldier On The Beat

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But the idea of fiddling with the Posse Comitatus Act worries civil libertarians. While F-16s patrolling over New York City and Washington may reassure some, the notion of soldiers in fatigues carrying M-16s at the Mall of America may not have the same effect. Tim Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, says soldiers shouldn't be used for police work because they are not trained for it: using overwhelming force to compel compliance by an enemy is different, he says, from the kind of negotiations engaged in regularly by most law-enforcement agencies. Military traditionalists have a problem with the idea too: they are worried that an overemphasis on homeland defense will dilute U.S. ability to wage war overseas.

That's partly why the White House backs the idea of an "Americas Command" but wants it limited to managing the Pentagon bureaucracy. If there is a catastrophic attack, that management will allow quick action, but the Administration is concerned about assigning any standing military force to missions now handled by police and other law-enforcement and emergency agencies. Governors argue that they know better than the momentarily garrisoned how to patrol their own backyard and protect their neighbors. Soldiers should be used only as "the last resort," Ridge says. Some of his "Governor friends"--Ridge is the former Pennsylvania Governor--are grumbling that their constituents are more comfortable with the police they've grown up with, and that officials who answer to the Pentagon can't easily be worked into state plans.

Bush is expected to approve the new CINC early next year, and Pentagon officials believe the change will be permanent. "The good news is that most of the elements to be successful are already there," says General Jim Jones, who as commandant of the Marine Corps is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It's more about reorganizing than it is about increasing troop levels by tens of thousands of people." It's one more way that American Airlines Flight 77--which crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11--has shaken the Defense Department.

--With reporting by John F. Dickerson/Washington