Regular influenza, the common flu, kills 36,000 people every year. The 1918 flu pandemic killed an estimated 50-100 million people worldwide over a period of two years, approximately one-third the population of Europe at that time. Global swine flu deaths topped just 1,000 this year.

But President Obama is predicting death tolls of 90,000 and possible infection of up to half the US population.

While every life matters, in statistical terms swine flu is a comparatively minor problem, which makes the hype by those in government and the military all the more suspicious.

The National Guard is even practicing mock takeovers of public schools in the event of an “H1N1 riot,” a description that elicits mixed responses. What kind of riot could arise out of a flu that has only killed 1,000 worldwide? Washington certainly seems to be looking for some rationale for enhanced domestic military involvement, whether credible or not.

Martial law has essentially been on the table since President Obama took office, thanks to the Bush Administration’s dramatic revisions of the Posse Comitatus Act —which limited deployment of the US military at home—in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With impeccable timing, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has gone before Congress asking for the unprecedented authority to base 400,000 soldiers in communities all across the United States.

A recent US Army War College Report even outlined the conditions under which martial law could be introduced, listing:

…unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters are all paths to disruptive domestic shock.

The CDC is finalizing quarantine regulations formulated during the Bush years that provide for quarantining “a large group of persons” suspected of having swine flu or other illnesses listed in an executive order. This means that President Obama can quarantine anyone as long as they have an illness he determines to be dangerous.

These new regulations even permit “provisional” quarantine of persons not actually carrying any virus. In one section, the regulations empower the president to quarantine anyone that does not agree to be vaccinated, an ominous condition since recent investigations have revealed that swine flu vaccines can cause serious medical complications. Thousands of doctors have voiced strong opposition to the proposed swine flu vaccine, due to its association with neurological disorders. No matter, a bill before the Massachusetts State Senate would permit authorities to enter homes and detain without warrant citizens who do not agree to be forcibly vaccinated. Iowa just released a new Orwellian quarantine policy directive that states in the event of a swine flu outbreak, “your home and other less restrictive alternatives are not acceptable.” These moves appear to be the result of federal incentives advancing mandatory vaccination.

The Army hasn’t missed a step, putting out ads for “Internment/Resettlement Specialists.” And, though most of the wild claims about “FEMA camps” have been appropriately and properly discredited, the fact remains that the Homeland Security Department has signed a $385 million contract with Halliburton subsidiary KBR Construction to build such facilities on an “as-needed” basis.

If you’re not already feeling nervous, revisit President Obama’s spine-chilling campaign pledge:

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

With the Serve America Act, this alarming proposition has become reality. The broad authority given to this force is staggering. Section 1505 gives the newly created National Civilian Community Corps the power to address national “needs” related to “natural and other disasters,” “infrastructure improvement,” “environmental stewardship and conservation,” “energy conservation,” and “urban and rural development.” The legislation reiterates that the corps will “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service.”

Nowhere have these two spheres ever been combined that tyranny has not resulted.

If these recent events were mere coincidence, Americans could peacefully go about their business. But Obama is no ordinary President. This is the man who began his political career in the home of terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, former members of the notorious Weather Underground that plotted the deaths of 25 million Americans in “re-education camps.”

Even so, it sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Mass internment and quarantine of Americans? Martial law used illegally to quell opposition to government policies? After all, this is America, not some banana republic.

But this is not the America of even 10 years ago. This is President Obama’s brave new America. Differences of opinion are criminalized, violating freedom of conscience in the deepest sense. Freedom of the press is assaulted with newspaper “bailouts” and diversity requirements imposed on local radio stations. Children face the possibility of weeklong, year-round education, effectively circumventing parents and making children wards of the state. Czars govern in the place of elected officials. Key private sector companies are now under the direct control of the President.

The President has even proven willing to use healthcare reform to target the elderly, recasting human life in terms of the collective good. The White House has even urged fellow citizens to inform on opponents of Obama’s healthcare bill. In this environment, the prospect of martial law doesn’t sound that far-fetched.

But isn’t this unconstitutional? No matter. The Constitution means nothing to President Obama, who has repeatedly implied the need to “break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution….”

Thomas Jefferson had a different view:

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism…In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

But when the President considers the Constitution to be nothing more than an archaic suggestion, no travesty is unthinkable. And the unthinkable is only a manufactured flu pandemic away. I desperately hope I am wrong in connecting these dots, but in light of the President’s stated agenda, and his known track record on ethical issues, the possibility of abuses must be considered. After all, stranger things have happened.