Send in the Marines? Not to Fight Coronavirus

Although President Donald Trump has declared the coronavirus a national emergency and leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says he would "call out the military now" to deal with it, Defense Department officials are unenthusiastic about the prospect. And well they should be. There are lots of practical reasons the military isn't a substitute for the public health infrastructure needed in this crisis. There are also important reasons that have to do with its role in a free society.  

It’s likely, nonetheless, that at some point the pandemic will require a presidential declaration or Congressional statute waiving the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits using the military in domestic roles regularly performed by civilian authorities. While this is sure to raise alarms among the president’s critics as a precursor to martial law, there is much the military can and should do in a time of national crisis. Not least, service members are some of the healthiest and least at-risk in the population, and are likely to remain able-bodied after the rest of us are not.