What Obama means is exactly the same thing Bush means in his call the last two years to create a "Civilian Reserve Corps" -- basically, a reserve of civlians ready and willing to volunteer to help out in international post-conflict reconstruction projects. I.e., precisely the sort of city planners and police trainers and large-animal vets and sewage plant engineers who we did not have in Iraq in 2003.

That anyone is trying to manufacture a controversy out of this is deliberate and total misdirection. It is no different in concept from what the current Administration is already doing, it's one of Secretary Gates' favorite projects (even though run by the State Dept), and McCain proposes more or less the same thing himself, though he doesn't attach a formal name to it. Obama is proposing a larger total size/budget for this than Bush (the program has been languishing), but

I know you'd love to imagine that these are Obama's brownshirts all set to oppress opponents of socialism, Tom, but your paranoia and willingness to credit Drudge have gotten the best of you. This is an idea with bi-partisan appeal, beloved by the think-tank circle and by the US military, not even original to Obama, only a name change from the Bush program.

Washington Post op-ed by Lugar and Rice about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/16/AR2007121601560.html

State Dept. Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization web page on the Civilian Reserve Corps: www.crs.state.gov/shortcut.cfm/4B5C

Obama's Foreign Affairs article, which has a blurb on his proposal: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86401/barack-obama/renewing-american-leadership.html