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Some Urge Greater Use of Troops in Major Disasters (say goodbye to Posse Comitatus?)
Washington Post ^ | 9/9/05

Posted on 09/08/2005 11:10:23 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon

Some Urge Greater Use of Troops in Major Disasters

By Bradley Graham

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 9, 2005; A15

The breakdown of local and state agencies that tried to respond to Hurricane Katrina has spurred fresh debate about whether disasters of such magnitude ought to be turned over to the U.S. military and other federal authorities to manage at the outset.

National plans developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rest on the notion that police, fire and other emergency groups are best positioned to serve as first responders. Federal agencies are supposed to function as backup to state and local ones, and military forces are meant to play a largely supporting role to civilian authorities.

But Katrina showed what can happen when the foundation of this organizational structure is quickly overwhelmed and disintegrates, according to government officials and independent analysts.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 09/08/2005 11:10:23 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon

Are these the same voices who despise the military any other time I wonder? Hmmm.


2 posted on 09/08/2005 11:11:20 PM PDT by ladyinred (It is all my fault okay?)
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon
As I predicted a week ago, all this squealing over FEMA's culpability and hesitation simply means that Congress will now enable FEMA to commandeer any disaster from the beginning. The local and state governments will be frozen out, as will the local preparedness on the ground.

If FEMA is going to be raked over the coals for not going in earlier, FEMA will make sure it gets full authority to go in early, from here on.

3 posted on 09/08/2005 11:15:26 PM PDT by sinkspur (It is time for those of us who have much to share with those who have nothing.)
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon
It won't happen .. The States will not just sign over control of their State to the feds

None of this would never have happened if Blanco just asked the Feds for help

And now because of her screw up ... All states are gonna pay for this

4 posted on 09/08/2005 11:17:27 PM PDT by Mo1
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon

Where the hell is the Peace Corps., Job Corps. and Americorps? This sounds more like a job for them. The military's job is to kill people and break things.


5 posted on 09/08/2005 11:23:24 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (We Gave Peace A Chance. It Didn't Work Out. Google: 09-11-01.)
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon
[ Some Urge Greater Use of Troops in Major Disasters (say goodbye to Posse Comitatus?) ]

and the American REPUBLIC... by the way.. Say hello to a American democracy.. treasonous in all its parts.. The words democracy and democratic are used NOWHERE in the american Constitution.. by design.. it is not an OMISSION..

6 posted on 09/08/2005 11:25:41 PM PDT by hosepipe (This Propaganda has been edited to include not a small amount of Hyperbole..)
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To: sinkspur
This is the typical response the government makes to such things. The agency that screwed up gets more money and a greater span of control. It's crazy.

Actually it's all about increasing governmental control. Notice how every crisis is "settled" by creating more government?

I much prefer Glenn Reynolds idea of "a pack, not a herd" where citizens are trained to respond to a crisis and rally themselves to help each other. No FEMA checkpoint to turn away people bringing in private help.

7 posted on 09/08/2005 11:28:20 PM PDT by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: ladyinred
Some lefty web sites are going crazy trying to claim that the President has extraordinary powers to send in force to do anything he wants anytime he wants, any constitutional check on his power be damned. It's amazing. They are essentially advocating for a Bush monarchy. My head is spinning trying to follow their arguments, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that they are simply taking whatever tack it is that puts them in opposition to whatever President Bush has done. You can be sure that had he invoked the Insurrection Act and forcibly sent in active duty troops to patrol the streets of New Orleans over the objections of Governor Blanco like they are now claiming he should have done, they would be the first to scream bloody murder.
8 posted on 09/08/2005 11:34:44 PM PDT by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon

Just because Louisiana is a putative third world country doesn't mean the rest of the country should be assumed to be a third world country.


9 posted on 09/08/2005 11:37:00 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (France is an example of retrograde chordate evolution.)
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon

The far left is no different from Stalin and Hitler and Mao and Po Pot and Castro and Chavez and......


10 posted on 09/08/2005 11:42:01 PM PDT by GeronL (Leftism is the Cult of the Artificial)
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To: FreedomCalls
No FEMA checkpoint to turn away people bringing in private help.

I't heard this but would like to get some more information...First was it in fact FEMA and not state people and second if it was FEMA were they doing what the state people told them to do...Does the state tell FEMA or does FEMA tell the state..who is in control?

From whats been reported on by Fox's Major Garrett that the Louisiana State people blocked Red Cross and Salvation Army's delivery of relief supplies to the Superdome and the Convention Center I would not think these two (FEMA and the State) would act independent of each other and both make the same decision to block outside help... who was in charge and who ordered who?

11 posted on 09/09/2005 12:06:30 AM PDT by tophat9000 (?)
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To: ladyinred

Yeah, go figure. I've read some people railing against the President for not just rushing in, then they turn around and rail against him for trying to take over the world, including these states.


12 posted on 09/09/2005 12:09:23 AM PDT by kenth (north Georgia mountains - prayers for all our neighbors in the gulf coast.)
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To: hosepipe
[ Some Urge Greater Use of Troops in Major Disasters (say goodbye to Posse Comitatus?) ]



That was just what clinton/reno used when they slaughtered 80+ people in Waco!??!
13 posted on 09/09/2005 12:19:40 AM PDT by danamco
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon

"Some say" the Washington Post should name names if "some say" something worth "reporting". Otherwise, I and many others might think they are making it up.


14 posted on 09/09/2005 12:22:10 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: tophat9000
From whats been reported on by Fox's Major Garrett that the Louisiana State people blocked Red Cross and Salvation Army's delivery of relief supplies to the Superdome and the Convention Center



So far I have not seen this covered or mentioned in any of the LSM!??!
Yesterday Rush fired it off in his opening monologue!!!
15 posted on 09/09/2005 12:23:30 AM PDT by danamco
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To: danamco

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1480443/posts
have you see this?


16 posted on 09/09/2005 12:45:30 AM PDT by tophat9000 (?!)
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To: kcvl
"Some say" the Washington Post should name names if "some say" something worth "reporting". Otherwise, I and many others might think they are making it up.

Precisely!

No one the Post bothered to identify urged "greater use of troops." Certainly no one quoted in the article did so, and no other facts supporting the headline were cited.

This could have been a good and informative article, had the Post not used it to make a point for which they were unable to find a shred of evidence. The only quotation they could find in weak, out-of-context support of their headlined thesis ("The would-be first responders at the state and local level were themselves victims in very large numbers") was immediately qualified by the speaker as referring to a "situation that was distinctly different" from the norm, and therefore not relevant to the chosen topic and title.

The article, as a whole, and all those quoted in it, support the opposite point. "Some Urge Greater Use of Troops" may be in the headline, but the Post provides nary a scintilla of evidence for that, and nary a name of anyone so urging. Only the headline comes anywhere near making its stated point, and that's pure editorial opinion, without other support.

The headline, taken with the article and the facts and quotations set forth in it by the Post, brands the Post a liar yet again, unless "Some" means "Bradley Graham and the Washington Post"--in which case they should so state. The headline is deceptive, the intended effect is politically manipulative, and it's sleazy journalism.

17 posted on 09/09/2005 1:20:48 AM PDT by umbagi (Monthly donor [entry level])
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To: ladyinred
Are these the same voices who despise the military any other time I wonder? Hmmm.

That would be loathe, actually, for it was Beezelbubba and Her Heinous who led the way in using the military as some type meals on wheels organization.

18 posted on 09/09/2005 1:31:45 AM PDT by Dahoser (If we can't shoot the looters, can we at least drop a Taser in the water near them?)
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To: FreedomCalls
You can be sure that had he invoked the Insurrection Act and forcibly sent in active duty troops to patrol the streets of New Orleans over the objections of Governor Blanco like they are now claiming he should have done, they would be the first to scream bloody murder.

Exactly!!! Then the reports would have been about how Bush the Dictator stole the rights of self-government from black leaders like Mayor Nagin. Nagin and the liberals would be on the media 24/7 whining about how "they're trying to put us back on the plantation," and how we are in charge here, Bush is just using a hurricane as a power grab to remove black leadership, etc., etc., etc.

19 posted on 09/09/2005 5:54:14 AM PDT by GraceCoolidge
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To: Uncle Joe Cannon

There's leftist logic here.

By federalizing all disasters ahead of time, the slate is wiped clean on accountability for all past state and local emergency prep money, and the stage is set for all such future money to become even more pork-laden.

I predict Big Gov't Republicans will go for this as much as the socialist class.


20 posted on 09/09/2005 6:15:59 AM PDT by hlmencken3 ("...politics is a religion substitute for liberals and they can't stand the competition")
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