National Guard or Praetorian Guard?

In yet another striking example of Republicans' limitless thirst for power, a provision has been included in a defense authorization bill (which has already passed in the House) granting the president authority to take over the National Guard in case of "natural disasters or national security threats." If the bill is passed, it would undermine a 200-year-old tradition of decentralized control over the National Guard, in which state governors control their state Guards. The Washington Post article can be found here.

This power grab is even more disturbing as it could open a loophole for use of military troops within the United States against American citizens. Long-standing traditions, as well as the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, bar the use of military forces within the borders of the United States, as law enforcement agents or otherwise. Though this ban has been violated by the government in the past, it has served to discourage the militarization of the U.S. The National Guard, however, has always been considered a notable exception to this rule. If President Bush were to gain power over the National Guard, it would amount to the establishment of a praetorian guard of sorts, giving Bush the power to deploy military units anywhere in the U.S. at his whim.

In a nation where many police forces are already being steadily transformed into jack-booted paramilitary organizations who have effectively declared war on American citizens (more here), this centralization of domestic military power in the hands of the power-hungry president is beyond dangerous. President Bush has, since 9/11, made for himself a presidency of virtually unlimited power, complete with secret spy programs of dubious legality, top-secret prison systems for "disappearing" unlucky individuals, claims to the right to detain American citizens indefinitely without recourse to courts, and numerous other infringements on constitutional limitations and individual liberties. Anyone who has remained willfully blind to this emerging threat to liberty should recognize now, as Bush seeks to mold the National Guard into yet another instrument of absolute executive power, the great danger posed by the president's growing tyranny, which has been tacitly (and at times explicitly) sanctioned by an increasingly powerless legislative branch. Too many freedoms have already been surrendered by the American people in support of destructive, oppressive power. Those who value freedom as a reality -- rather than a cheap, Orwellian rhetorical device as used by Bush -- have the responsibility to reassert their fundamental rights in face of this growing threat.