Obama's 'Civilian National Security Force'

Politics | Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 5:48:57 pm PDT

Among the many promises and pledges in Barack Obama’s multi-million dollar infomercial, one statement really stood out: he announced that he will “rebuild the military.”

But somehow, at the same time, he’s planning a “civilian national security force” that is as powerful and well-funded as the US military: Obama outlines plan for national service.

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

The Department of Defense’s current base budget is close to $500 billion. So if he meant that promise, he plans on a total defense budget of about a trillion dollars.

What exactly is Obama planning to do with a “civilian force” with such an astronomical level of funding?