Making martial law easier – International Herald Tribune
It’s amazing what is getting lost in the fog of war. The media and everyone else is too distracted by the war in iraq to see what laws are exactly being passed in Washington.
The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order.
Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.”
Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the countrys governors.
There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nations governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.
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