Gates Announces Plan to Make National Guard a Homeland âOperational Forceâ Kurt Nimmo Infowars ( http://www.infowars.com/?p=6189 ) November 25, 2008 Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the Pentagon to conduct a âbroad reviewâ to determine if the military and the National Guard and Reserve can âadequately deal with domestic disasters,â including âa catastrophic attack on the country,â according to the Associated Press. Gatesâ order falls on the heels of an earlier report released by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves urging the Pentagon to âuse the nationâs citizen soldiers to create an operational force that would be fully trained, equipped and ready to defend the nation.â Gates plan for a review of the National Guardâs role is especially troublesome in the wake of the Pentagonâs announcement in September that the 3rd Infantry Divisionâs 1st Brigade Combat Team would be deployed domestically by Northcom beginning October 1. Gates and the Pentagon are obviously in the process of implementing the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. The act changed federal law so that the Governor of a state is no longer the sole commander in chief of their stateâs National Guard during emergencies within the state, a direct violation of Article I, Section 10 and Clause 3 of the Constitution. As original envisioned by the founders, who rightfully feared standing armies, active and reserve military organizations were to be limited in size and scope and complemented by citizen-soldiers. The the John Warner Defense Authorization Act has finally put to rest the idea that these citizen-soldiers will not be federalized. It can be argued that the Warner bill is simply a culmination of earlier piecemeal violations, including the Militia Act of 1792, the Insurrection Act of 1807, and in particular the Militia Act of 1903, the latter allowing for the creation of the National Guard of the United States as the primary organized reserve force for the U.S. armed forces. Gates is simply announcing a fiat accompli â the merging of the Department of Defense and the National Guard into one cohesive force that will be deployed domestically in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which substantially limited the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. In the past, maintaining order during domestic disasters was the responsibility of local and state law enforcement, although the National Guard was on occasion called in cases of civil unrest. Gates plan for a review of the National Guardâs role is especially troublesome in the wake of the Pentagonâs announcement in September that the 3rd Infantry Divisionâs 1st Brigade Combat Team would be deployed domestically by Northcom beginning October 1. âBeginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks,â the Army Times reported on September 30. The battle-hardened brigade, straight out combat duty in Iraq, will engage in âspecialty tasksâ usually reserved for local law enforcement. In addition, the brigade will use âthe first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded⦠designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them,â an especially chilling prospect in light of growing predictions of civil unrest as the economy worsens. If the Pentagon plan is realized, the National Guard will receive training for âhomeland defense and civil support missions, as opposed to the warfighting now consuming them.â The Associated Press admits Gatesâ effort is designed to âintegrate reservists into the modern day military and consider treating them on a more equal basis to the active duty troops.â Arnold L. Punaro, former chairman of the commission, welcomed Gatesâ recommendations and declared that improving the militaryâs role in homeland defense and enhancing the clout of the reserves ârepresent a historic break with the past.â It also represents a âhistoric break â with the Constitution of the United States. Gates and the Pentagon realize the United States does not face a serious external terrorist threat. Instead, it faces in the not too distant future a reaction on the part of the citizenry to the banker engineered deconstruction of the economy and the social and political chaos that will undoubtedly follow. The National Guard, along with the 3rd Infantry Divisionâs 1st Brigade Combat Team and other military troops, will use the ânonlethal package⦠designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individualsâ mentioned by the Army Times. Gatesâ âoperational force that would be fully trained, equipped and ready to defend the nationâ has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden and his cave-dwelling terrorists â or another Hurricane Katrina for that matter â but it has everything to do with preventing the people from rising up and taking back their country.