How much do you know about how our military acts and who is ultimately responsible for making the “big decisions” about who does what and when? Our Commander in Chief….right?

Our democracy works, or suppose to work, as a result of the system of checks and balances as written in our Constitution by our Founding Fathers. So what happens when something is not right and decisions are made and actions taken that are not in accordance with the rules…….then what?

Well, one recourse is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Let me be more specific.

According to Army Times, the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning 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 man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

Active-duty units have previously assisted at home after the Hurricane Katrina disaster however this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

Doesn’t seem like a problem until you learn that the American Civil Liberties Union is questioning the use of an active Army brigade as an on-call federal response force within the U.S., arguing that the military is barred from any role in civilian law enforcement and that the force could be used to help the Pentagon conduct domestic surveillance.

The assignment, the ACLU said, “raises important questions about the longstanding separation between civilian and military government within the United States — a separation that dates to the nation’s founding and that has been reiterated in landmark statutes, most importantly, the Posse Comitatus Act.”

The ACLU said its domestic surveillance concerns are “heightened by the government’s prior expansion of domestic surveillance activities in the name of national security.”

It’s a scary thought that if it weren’t for the ACLU and other watchdog organizations things like this would continue to go go and on until there is a major incident or worse……we wakeup and find ourselves living in a totalitarian police state.

THINK ABOUT IT!