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Who Calls the Cavalry?
Opinionjournal ^
| September 9, 2005
| Daniel Henninger
Posted on 09/09/2005 4:15:18 AM PDT by oldtimer2
Who Calls the Cavalry? The Pentagon was prepared for Hurricane Katrina.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER Friday, September 9, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
"When you fly over the Gulf, it looks like a WMD exploded," Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul McHale told me this week. "Katrina very nearly approached the operational requirements of a WMD event; this was the first test of the high-end capability envisioned by the strategy."
The "strategy" is a three-month-old document called "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support." It describes the Defense Department's plans to defend the U.S. from a WMD attack or deal with the rubble and mass casualties of such an attack. Traditionally DoD has always helped civil authorities contend with the ruin of natural disasters. That Katrina's massive scale mirrored a WMD attack, obliterating a city, is a coincidence. But it raises the question of whether the states, or relatively vulnerable states like Louisiana, are up to the job of being "first responders" to a WMD attack or its natural equivalent. If they are not, we need to change some laws.
Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Fridays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: authority; dod; katrina; militaryreadiness; pentagon; possecomitas
This is why the Democrats will not co-operate with a bi-partisan investigation. Any reasonable investigation will show that their accusations are false. They would rather have the ability to accuse the administration of failing than fix the blame where it will have to go.
1
posted on
09/09/2005 4:15:20 AM PDT
by
oldtimer2
To: oldtimer2
INTERESTING ACCOUNT:
According to accounts provided by several sources involved with preparations for Katrina, the Pentagon began tracking the storm when it was still just a number in the ocean on Aug. 23, some five days before landfall in Buras, La. As the storm approached, senior Pentagon officials told staff to conduct an inventory of resources available should it grow into a severe hurricane. Their template for these plans was the assistance DoD provided Florida last year for its four hurricanes.
And a week earlier than this, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued an executive order delegating hurricane decision authority to the head of the Northern Command, Adm. Timothy J. Keating. Four days later, as the tropical storm soon to be named Katrina gathered force, Adm. Keating acted on that order.
Before the hurricane arrived in New Orleans, Adm. Keating approved the use of the bases in Meridien, Miss., and Barksdale, La., to position emergency meals and some medical equipment; eventually the number of emergency-use bases grew to six. And before landfall, Adm. Keating sent military officers to Mississippi and Louisiana to set up traditional coordination with their counterparts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As well, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England ordered the movement of ships into the Gulf.
By the Pentagon's account, it carried out these preparations without any formal Katrina-related request from FEMA or other authorities. The personnel behind the massive military effort now on display in Louisiana--airlift evacuation, medical, supply, and the National Guard--was on alert a week before the hurricane. According to Assistant Secretary McHale, "The U.S. military has never deployed a larger, better-resourced civil support capability so rapidly in the history of our country."
So where were they...?
READ ON--
2
posted on
09/09/2005 5:08:06 AM PDT
by
OESY
To: OESY
Reg Military 1st Responder status? Maybe with some checks like a 2/3 vote of both houses of the US Congress. As well as the President having to order it.
3
posted on
09/09/2005 5:50:36 AM PDT
by
MNJohnnie
(Professional Journalism- the Buggy Whip makers of the 21st century)
To: MNJohnnie
Some liberal told me that the President didn't have to use the Insurrection Act because he had power under the Stanford Act to call in the troops and he didn't even have to federalize the NG to do it. Can anybody point me to the facts on this? I've read so many documents and my mind is spinning from all the vague language in them.
4
posted on
09/09/2005 11:00:54 PM PDT
by
Elyse
To: Elyse
Both those assertions are false.
L
5
posted on
09/09/2005 11:03:07 PM PDT
by
Lurker
(Reality cannot be changed by wishful thinking, good intentions, or legislation.)
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