Obama wants "civilian national security force"

According to this article, Senator Obama gave a speech outlining his plan for "national service", ostensibly to increase volunteerism, but that's probably code for the federal government spending more of your money on all sorts of things not mentioned in the Constitution:

Obama promised to increase AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 and pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011.

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona also supports an expansion of both programs and has stressed public service, including in the military, during campaign appearances.

Obama repeated his pledge to boost the size of the active military. But he also said the nation's future and safety depends on more than just additional soldiers.

"It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," he said.

Obama had first outlined many of the proposals he talked about Wednesday during appearances in Iowa last December.

"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." [emphasis added]

He said he would make federal assistance conditional on school districts establishing service programs and set the goal of 50 hours of service a year for middle and high school students.

For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students that would be tied to that level of service.

Obama said he realizes there will be skeptics, but stressed that greater public service will make the nation safer.

First, notice how none of the above "things that will make us safer" involve private individuals working for private enterprise. Or even such individuals working for private charities. Only government-funded "public service" organizations fit the bill. Because we all know how efficient and well-managed government organizations are.

Politicians routinely have the gall to suggest that "public service" is somehow better, or more virtuous, than private enterprise. Well, guess where all those tax dollars that politicians spend on themselves and their "public service" programs come from? They come from private enterprise. Without private enterprise employing individuals to do real work producing products and services of real value, there wouldn't be any money for all these self-righteous "public servants" to spend. And as Al Gore might say, that's just An Inconvenient Truth.

Second, what the heck is a "civilian national security force" and what will it be used for. Is Obama referring to the National Guard? Some sort of new "Federal Militia"? He wants something that's "just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded" as the military we already have? How's he planning on paying for this new force? I guess the bitter citizens peons will just have to work extra hard to fund this new force.

I won't dwell on any legal problems that might exist with this whole idea, since I doubt Senator Obama will be troubled by any constitutional roadblocks trifles that might stand in his way.