ready for the police state???? im sorry we already live in a police state. ready for the new improved bigger police state?? Original Article Bush suggests military to enforce quarantines Warren Vieth Los Angeles Times Oct. 5, 2005 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - President Bush expressed concern Tuesday about the threat of a global flu pandemic and said Congress should consider letting the U.S. military play a broader role in enforcing quarantines and other emergency measures. Bush said the possibility of a virulent new strain of avian influenza spreading rapidly around the world raises difficult questions about a president's ability to direct an effective domestic-response effort and the federal government's authority to carry it out. Flu pandemics have tended to occur about three times a century, following the emergence of a new influenza virus to which humans have developed no immunity. The last such outbreak was in 1968. The deadliest was the 1918 pandemic that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide and an estimated 675,000 in the United States. "I'm not predicting an outbreak," Bush said. "I'm just suggesting to you that we'd better be thinking about it. And we are. ... We're trying to put some plans in place." World health authorities have become increasingly alarmed about the pandemic potential of a lethal strain of avian influenza called H5N1, which has killed millions of birds and about 60 people who came into contact with them since it was first detected in Asia in 1997. Scientists have cited initial signs the virus may be mutating into a form that could spread rapidly from human to human and possibly trigger a pandemic. Bush said his concern was heightened when he recently read The Great Influenza, a book by John M. Barry, who described the devastation of the 1918 pandemic and mistakes made by federal, state and local authorities in the United States that worsened its impact. Asked about avian flu during a White House news conference, Bush said the potential risk of an outbreak is great enough to justify a more aggressive preparedness campaign. Bush said one option would be to deploy the U.S. military to provide the kind of rapid command and control measures needed during a pandemic. He asked Congress to consider the need for legislation to expand the federal role. Doing so would require changing laws that restrict the role of active-duty troops in domestic emergencies, a possibility raised in response to the government's problematic response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Some military officials have expressed skepticism about assuming more responsibility in such situations, and some lawmakers have voiced concern about the diminished authority of state officials and the National Guard units they control.