With Hurricane Katrina behind them, top officials in Washington have stopped playing the blame game and taken up another one of the national capital's favorite pastimes: fixing things that ain't broken.
One thing that seems to be in fine working order (and thus in grave danger of fixing) is the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits federal troops from engaging in domestic law enforcement operations. Congress passed the law after the Civil War to prevent federal troops from supervising elections and enforcing laws in Southern states that were previously part of the Confederacy.
Since then, entire generations of Americans have grown up with the understanding that the U.S. military is simply not a giant police force, and the world is a much safer place if folks remember that.
Among those who seem to have forgotten is President Bush, who says that Congress "needs to take a look at" revising the Posse Comitatus law to give the military an expanded role in responding to catastrophes, national emergencies and natural disasters.
You find more faulty memories in Congress, where Sen. John Warner, R-Va., head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants his colleagues to "reflect on" the Posse Comitatus Act.
Danger: In politician-speak, "reflect on" usually means change. Or tinker with. Or reinvent.
Memories aren't any better at the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld isn't waiting around to see what the legislative branch does. Pentagon officials say that Rumsfeld is considering changes in how the military can be used in domestic emergencies.
I understand the arguments of those who want to increase the role of the military, perhaps to the point where it becomes a first responder in emergencies and disasters. After all, from the look of it, it wasn't until the military arrived on the Gulf Coast – five days after Katrina struck – that order was re-established and residents began to feel safer.
Due to that fact alone, the military deserves credit. It reacted quickly and decisively in restoring order to a situation that was slipping into chaos. Contrast that to the paralysis and ineptitude that marked the response of civilian authorities and government bureaucracies at the local, state and federal levels.
And America noticed. If the horrendous scandal at Abu Ghraib prison has tarnished the reputation of the military in the eyes of many Americans, its first-rate response to Katrina polished it back up. In a recent poll by SurveyUSA, Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, who is in charge of the military's response to Katrina, was voted the most effective leader of the recovery operation.
Left in the dust: Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, and – bringing up the rear – the now disgraced former head of FEMA, Michael Brown.
Yet there are still good and sound reasons for maintaining the legal limits on how, when and under what circumstances the military may be used for what are essentially law-enforcement functions in responding to emergencies and disasters. Here's just one reason: For all that military leaders know about taking charge, organizing and marshaling resources, and moving thousands of people to where they can do the most good in a matter of hours – and clearly they know a lot about all of the above – there is one concept that they sometimes have real trouble with: restraint.
We saw that on the Gulf Coast where Honore and his counterpart, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who is leading the overall federal response to Katrina, tried to bar the media from covering the recovery of bodies from the flooded streets of New Orleans. Honore and Allen insisted that the policy was meant to protect the victims' families.
That may or may not be the case. But it wasn't until CNN went to court and won an injunction against the policy that the people's right to know enjoyed any protection whatsoever.
Bravo for CNN. The military can be counted on to resort to those kinds of shortcuts when fighting wars on foreign soil. But whenever it's operating on U.S. soil, it must uphold the Constitution.
Besides, the real danger in having the military conduct operations on U.S. soil is the potential for U.S. citizens being subjected to violence when soldiers and everyday Americans are in close proximity to each other.
Posse Comitatus is fine just as is. It doesn't need fixing. It needs to be left alone.
Ruben Navarrette's e-mail address is
ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.
