Originally Posted by greentips

Can't use the military for this purpose. It's against the law dating back to the reconstruction era. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents the government from using military in law enforcement type activities.

Bush was successful in revising the law to allow the use of military following a terrorist attack however, I think that was repealed fairly recently. The use of the military in law enforcement against U.S. citizens has generally been disastrous throughout history. Military units are trained to assault, invade and occupy, under clearly defined rules of engagement, not administer and enforce the law. Apparently, not unlike many of the present day TSA (except TSA has no clearly defined ROE).