The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 72/No. 50      December 22, 2008

 
Active-duty unit set for
‘antiterror’ role in U.S.
(front page)
 
BY BEN JOYCE  
Pentagon officials expect some 20,000 active-duty U.S. troops to be stationed in the United States by 2011, for the alleged purpose of responding to a nuclear attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to press reports. This deployment on domestic soil marks another step in the U.S. rulers’ preparations to use troops—not just police—to respond to resistance by working people as economic and social conditions worsen.

The 20,000 troops includes a 4,700-person unit built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, which was made available as of October 1. The troops are operating under the authority of the U.S. Northern Command (Northcom), one of nine “war-fighting” commands of the military’s global Unified Combat Command structure.

Established in October 2002, Northcom is the first military command structure to be responsible for the continental United States and the rest of North America since the aftermath of the Civil War. Bert Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership, said the move by the Pentagon “breaks the mold.” Prior to October 1, Northcom had never directly controlled active-duty units and was required to request troops from other sources.

In an interview with ABCNews.com, Northcom spokesman Michael Kucharek claimed that the military units would not be used as a domestic police force but admitted “they will inevitably have to act to protect themselves.”

The troop structure is set up under the guise of responding to nuclear or biological terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Washington has been pressing to bolster its own nuclear weapons program and extend what the government calls its “strategic deterrent.”

The Reliable Replacement Warhead program, initiated by the Bush administration but cut off earlier this year, provides for replacement of nuclear warheads that have aged since the Cold War. Top Defense Department officials are now urging that it be reinstated. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently called on Congress to appropriate funding for the program. “As long as other nations possess the bomb and the means to deliver it,” Gates wrote in the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs, “the United States must maintain a credible strategic deterrent.”

Parallel to these measures, the U.S. government is also taking steps to further militarize U.S. borders. Border cops will be launching unmanned aircraft patrols along a 300-mile strip of the U.S.-Canadian border in North Dakota and Minnesota. The first missions are expected to start next month, which will be the first such patrols of the northern U.S. border. Similar aircraft have patrolled the southern border since 2005. Customs and Border Protection authorities say that these patrols will be used primarily to spot people crossing the border illegally.  
 
 
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