Is Posse Comitatus Dead?

I ran into a few articles today regarding an upcoming deployment of the 1st Infantry Division. Apparently their destination is the United States. This will be the first time since the Civil War that a military unit will be "deployed" within the U.S. borders with a mission other than training. Is this a conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878? I'm sure not the person to say one way or another; that will be left up to the smart folks in the Justice Department. However; I do have an opinion on it.

What is the problem with deploying forces within the U.S.? Well there's the obvious reason that initiated the Act after the Civil War but those reasons aren't in existence in today's world. We have a standing police force that is well equipped to handle any civil disturbance if it was to rear it's ugly head. But what of the real mission of the Army defending the U.S.? Yes, folks that's why this is coming around. In today's world of terrorist imposed micro-conflicts, it's a smart idea to have a force ready to go in a moments notice to defend us if a terrorist was to try something here at home. Suitcase nukes, dirty bombs, and chemical and biological weapons can devastate our homeland while our Army is focused overseas. Wouldn't it be smart to have someone providing defense at home for these threats? The time of large standing forces threatening our country is pretty much over but that doesn't mean we're not threatened. We need to adapt our force to handle these new threats; threats that do exist, threats that we live with every day.

Police forces are there to enforce the law but are being asked to do more and more defense type of missions. Terrorists don't normally break laws until they blow something up so the pursuit of this enemy by the Police could be construed as a conflict. Yes, I know we have laws about planning terrorist acts but they're pretty broad and hard to enforce. Although these people have declared war on us, we still treat them as criminals and they're not, they are enemy forces in our country to bring down us. The ultimate goal of terrorist forces is the same as if we had an enemy countries army within our borders; the downfall of our way of life. Defending us against this type of threat IS the mission of the Army folks.

Posse Comitatus isn't dead folks. The law has evolved just is our country has evolved and does still have some relevance however the law does have two sides. While it does limit the involvement of the Army in criminal enforcement it also somewhat defines the role of the Police. So let's do what Posse Comitatus intended and let the Police do their job of enforcing our laws, and let the Army do it's job of defending the country.