What Does Obama Mean When He Calls for a “Civilian National Security Force”?

On July 2, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama said, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." (Joseph Farah, "Obama's 'Civilian national security force'," World Net Daily, July 15, 2008, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=69601) What is a Civilian National Security Force (CNSF) suppose to do that it needs to be “as powerful, strong, and well-funded” as the United States military?

The mainstream media has given no attention to this proposal even though it involves a mind-boggling federal budget expense. Only World Net Daily, the Chicago Tribune, and the Congressional Quarterly reported on it. More interestingly, neither Obama himself nor any of his campaign staff have been willing, so far, to answer any inquiries on the subject. They scrubbed these sentences from the transcript of the speech, claiming they were ad-libbed remarks, and removed the video. A thorough review of the Obama’s official campaign website finds nary a mention of a “Civilian National Security Force.”

The closest approximation of the term was in a section entitled “Develop Whole of Government Initiatives to Promote Global Stability” under “Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan.” There is a paragraph: “Create a Civilian Assistance Corps (CAC): An Obama-Biden administration will set a goal of creating a national CAC of 25,000 personnel. This corps of civilian volunteers with special skill, sets (doctors, lawyers, engineers, city planners, agriculture specialists, police, etc.) would be organized to provide each federal agency with a pool of volunteer experts willing to deploy in times of need at home and abroad.” (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/defense/)

The Obama-Biden plan calls for “universal voluntary public service.” He has proposed to “expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots today to 250,000,” improve “programs that connect individuals over the age of 55 to quality volunteer opportunities,” “double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by 2011,” and “set up an America's Voice Initiative to send Americans who are fluent speakers of local languages to expand our public diplomacy.” (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/service/)

Lee Cary of American Thinker believes this expansion of national service is the context for Obama’s call for a CNSF. “They were about turning America into one, giant, community organizer's sandbox at enormous cost to taxpayers” with Obama as “Community Organizer in Chief.”

“He plans to double the Peace Corps' budget by 2011, and expand AmeriCorps, USA Freedom Corps, VISTA, YouthBuild Program, and the Senior Corps. Plus, he proposes to form a Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, Homeland Security Corps, Global Energy Corps, and a Green Jobs Corps. Here a corps - there a corps - everywhere a corps corps.”

His plan calls for “a Social Investment Fund Network to link local non-profits with the federal government.” (Lee Cary, "Obama's Civilian National Security Force," American Thinker, July 20, 2008, http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obamas_civilian_national_secur.html)

Cary calls the plan “Orwellian-like” because the way it extends the tentacles of the federal government into every aspect of traditionally private-sector volunteer efforts. Others have worried that Obama’s plans are more Hitler-like. Is Cary correct in saying that it is the massive expansion of government-run volunteer opportunities that Obama was talking about in Colorado Springs when he spoke of a CNSF? I am among the concerned skeptics.

Joseph Farah, the World Net Daily reporter who broke the story, inquired,

“Who will Obama appoint to administer this new ‘civilian national security force’? Where will the money come from? Where in the Constitution does he see justification for the federal government creating such a domestic army? The questions are endless. Certainly there have been initiatives like this elsewhere – Cuba, the Soviet Union, China, Venezuela, North Korea. But has anything like this ever been proposed in a free country?”

(Joseph Farah, "Obama's 'Civilian national security force'," World Net Daily, July 15, 2008, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=69601)

The numbers alone do not add up to mean Obama’s volunteer program proposals alone. The Department of Defense (DOD) budget in 2008 is about $480 billion. Even if Congress authorized funding for every one of Obama’s volunteer expansions, it would not come close to half a trillion dollars. Yet, he said the CNSF must be “just as well-funded" as the military.

As one blogger questioned, “The statement was made in the context of youth service. Is this an organization for just the youth or are adults going to participate? How does one get away from the specter of other such “youth” organizations from Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union when talking about it?” (The Blue Collar Muse, “What in the world is Obama’s Civilian National Security Force,” July 16, 2008 http://conservablogs.com/bluecollarmuse/2008/07/16/what-in-the-world-is-obamas-civilian-national-security-force/)

The context just before the CNSF mention in Obama’s Colorado Springs speech was:

“As President, I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots, and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose. People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem - they are the answer.

“We’ll send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We’ll call on Americans to join an Energy Corps to conduct renewable energy and environmental cleanup projects in their neighborhoods. We’ll enlist veterans to help other vets find jobs and support, and to be there for our military families. And we’ll also grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered, and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy.”

Most commentators believe that the CNSF is an additional organization and not part of the previously cited propositions. I agree based on both the context and the key phrases “security force” combined with “just as strong.” Will the CNSF be a way of imposing martial law without violating “posse comatatus” laws? Will it be a federalized police force? Under the Constitution, the Founding Fathers were careful to delineate the boundaries of “civilian” and “military” matters. They put civilians firmly in charge of the military, knowing that without such controls, rights of citizens can be trampled. The CNSF sounds too much like a paramilitary operation.

Of course, the whole matter could be resolved if Obama would answer some questions about what he met when he called for a CNSF. “If what he really meant was Americorps and the the Peace Corps, then why won’t he say so? Why have the video and text been scrubbed from so many places? Why isn’t it available even at his own website? Might it have been a trial balloon that failed in spectacular fashion reminiscent of the Hindenburg?” (Ibid.)

Farang Korat on October 18, 2008, shared a conversation he had with members of the Nation of Islam, “I was told that sometime soon after Obama is ‘elected’ he will announce the creation of large ‘training camps’ in a few large urban cities.” He was told that “the instructors at those camps would be from the ranks of Farrakhan’s ‘Fruit of Islam’ (his bodyguards).” Could this be the beginning of Obama’s CNSF? (Ibid.)

When I first heard this term “CNSF,” I had two reactions. One was a recall of Hitler’s youth corps, the Brown Shirts. The other was Hitler’s SS Corps. Here is the American Heritage Dictionary’s definition of “SS”: “An elite quasi-military unit of the Nazi party that served as Hitler's personal guard and as a special security force in Germany and the occupied countries. ETYMOLOGY: German, abbr. for Schutzstaffel : Schutz, defense + Staffel, echelon” [emphasis added]. (The American Heritage Dictionary Fourth Edition 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/61/88/S0688800.html) I report. You decide.