Posted on 09/03/2005 7:19:37 AM PDT by Truthsayer20
Congress Likely to Probe Guard Delay By SHARON THEIMER Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck - a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday.
California troops just began arriving in Louisiana on Friday, three days after flood waters devastated New Orleans and chaos broke out. In fact, when New Orleans' levees gave way to deadly flooding on Tuesday, Louisiana's National Guard had received help from troops in only three other states: Ohio, which had nine people in Louisiana then; Oklahoma, 89; and Texas, 625, figures provided by the National Guard show.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler, who leads the Michigan National Guard, said he anticipated a call for police units and started preparing them, but couldn't go until states in the hurricane zone asked them to come.
"We could have had people on the road Tuesday," Cutler said. "We have to wait and respond to their need."
The Michigan National Guard was asked for military police by Mississippi late Tuesday and by Louisiana officials late Wednesday. The state sent 182 MPs to Mississippi on Friday and had 242 headed to Louisiana on Saturday.
With many states' Guard units depleted by deployments to Iraq, Katrina's aftermath was almost certain from the beginning to require help from faraway states.
Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress are just beginning to ask why one of the National Guard's most trusted roles - disaster relief - was so uneven, delayed and chaotic this time around.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said the situation has shown major breakdowns in the nation's emergency response capabilities. "There must be some accountability in this process after the crisis is addressed," he said.
Democrat Ben Nelson, Nebraska's other senator, said he now questions National Guard leaders' earlier assertions that they had enough resources to respond to natural disasters even with the Iraq war. "I'm going to ask that question again," Nelson said. "Do we have enough (troops), and if we do, why were they not deployed sooner?" President Bush was asked that question Friday as he toured the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast area and said he disagrees with criticism the military is stretched too thin.
"We've got a job to defend this country in the war on terror, and we've got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, and we'll do both," he said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., plans to make oversight of the Defense Department, the National Guard and their assistance his top priority when he returns to Washington next week from an overseas trips, spokesman John Ullyot said Friday.
Bush had the legal authority to order the National Guard to the disaster area himself, as he did after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks . But the troops four years ago were deployed for national security protection, and presidents of both parties traditionally defer to governors to deploy their own National Guardsmen and request help from other states when it comes to natural disasters.
Though slow at the beginning, out-of-state Guard help was markedly increasing by the start of the weekend. As of Friday, nearly half the states had Guard members in Louisiana, boosting the total to at least 5,600 from out of state. Hundreds more were on the way.
Michigan, which was ready to help before the storm began, was sending 500 National Guard troops Friday and Saturday to help with water purification in Mississippi and police duty in New Orleans.
Arizona didn't get a request for military police until Thursday, when it received an urgent message sent to all state National Guards by the National Guard Bureau at the request of Louisiana, said Capt. Paul Aguirre. He said the unit cannot leave Phoenix until Sunday because arriving units must arrive at a pace the receiving end can handle. Among those headed in were several hundred from Wisconsin, where the governor took the unusual step of declaring a disaster outside his state to activate his Guard.
"This was the first time a governor ever declared a natural disaster in another state and activated to that other state," said Gov. Jim Doyle, who issued his order Wednesday. "We were ready to be deployed within 24 hours of that order."
In addition to Guard help, the federal government could have activated, but did not, a major air support plan under a pre-existing contract with airlines. The program, called Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, lets the government quickly put private cargo and passenger planes into service. The CRAF provision has been activated twice, once for the Persian Gulf War and again for the Iraq war. ---
LOL!!
I'm not saying it's his fault. I'm saying that Bush should have known how effed up things would be in the hands of those two boobs and been there on the phone as soon as it was clear to the two boobs what they were dealing with and that they were way over their heads (which would pretty much be seconds after Katrina hit). And said, "Hey, I hear you have a big CF down there. You want me to take this one?" They'd say, "Yes," before he finished his sentence and Bush would order his plan that was put together on Sunday to be implemented.
From this link:
KATRINA TURNED TO THE NORTHWEST AND THEN NORTH...MAKING LANDFALL IN PLAQUEMINES PARISH LOUISIANA JUST SOUTH OF BURAS WITH 140 MPH WINDS...CATEGORY 4...AT 610 AM CDT ON 29 AUGUST. CONTINUING NORTHWARD...KATRINA MADE A SECOND LANDFALL NEAR THE LOUISIANA/MISSISSIPPI BORDER AT 1000 AM CDT...WITH MAXIMUM WINDS OF NEAR 125 MPH...CATEGORY 3.
This is a key point! It's kind of ironic that 40 years of New Society programs created an environment where non-governmental relief organizations could not operate and the military was needed to come in. Of course, the government failed to organize the military presence in a timely manner! This whole mess is like an endless loop of government jumping into action eventually making things worse for society.
For good or bad the people of New Orleans elected Nagin as mayor and the people of Louisiana elected Blanco as governor. Bush simply cannot go around the country pushing aside incompetent Democrats and taking over without them asking him. I can't even imagine the Democrats' furor, they would be saying we had a dictator if he had rushed in either before or right after the hurricane.
What, over the war in Iraq? It's clear that war and national emergency are automatic clearances, and SCOTUS would let him command NG troops for other reasons, too-- by broadly defining those two things. And Fast Eddie is an idiot.
Good lord:
5. Bush was busy eating cake and strumming country & western tunes.
They are insane.
You're the voice of reason though!
Yes, they are......and my list is getting longer.
And Joe Scarborough is now on it.
You're the voice of reason though!
No doubt, I'll soon be banned.
Congress, while you're at it, probe the corruption in Nawlins that led the levees and pump systems to be less than they should have been.
Thank God Ehrlich won.
And I approve of that action. I'm suggesting that he knew what incompetent boobs Blanco and Nagin were before Katrina hit and I wonder if he had a contingency plan in place Sunday before Katrina hit (I knew, myself) and if he called Blanco and Nagin as soon as Katrina hit to ask them if they'd like the feds to take this off their plate. I bet they would have said yes in a New York minute.
Please tell me that NO did NOT house their emergency supplies in -- New Orleans.
You're arguing semantics; I'm explaining the law. It is absolutely necessary to be clear about where the legal responsibilities lie in dealing with life and death scenarios such as thing, or even discussing them intelligently.
That said, we don't know how much "active communication" from the White House has occurred this week with Gov. Blanco. You don't know that President Bush hasn't called her repeatedly and urged her to step up and act in her official capacity, to "pull the trigger" as Col. Hunt put it.
I suspect he has "strongly urged" her to act, but he does not have the authority to order her to act, whether you like it or not. Either way, we'll probably never know, first because even if he did President Bush has more class than to embarrass and smear others the way they are trying to smear him, and second, because if he didn't, Blanco and the others trying to CYA wouldn't hesitate to use it against him if they knew no evidence existed to disprove their accusations. Unfortunately for them, I'm certain any conversations between President Bush and Governor Blanco were recorded.
I'm talking about the political end-game which is very much related to the public's perception of moral responsibility. My worry is that the political left will score points with the ignorant public over the perceived failure of the national government. Of course, the 2006 elections are far away.
Well, while you play politics, the rest of us who have actually been through and dealt with hurricanes will get the job done.
Just send us a copy of your "gaming" report.
So there's a paper trail to back this up -- that she did not formally request help to well into the week?
I would like to have some link to send to doubters.
"...a Cat 5 hitting one of the most important cities in the US...It's very much a national security issue because of the importance of NO to our way of life..."
Other than the fact that there were people there, what makes NO one of the most important cities in the US? And what about the 'importance' of NO to our way of life??? And why is that a national security issue?
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