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GQ report blames Rumsfeld for military delay after Katrina (Hit piece on Rummy)
NOLA.com ^ | May 18, 2009 | Times-Picayune

Posted on 05/20/2009 1:59:15 PM PDT by balch3

A report on the GQ magazine Web site is quoting unnamed former Bush administration official as blaming former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for many failures, including a delay in military assistance in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The report says "in speaking with the former Bush officials, it becomes evident that Rumsfeld impaired administration performance on a host of matters extending well beyond Iraq to impact America's relations with other nations, the safety of our troops, and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Washington Monthly highlights more of Robert Draper's article in GQ:

"[T]hree years later, when I asked a top White House official how he would characterize Rumsfeld's assistance in the response to Hurricane Katrina, I found out why. "It was commonly known in the West Wing that there was a battle with Rumsfeld regarding this," said the official. "I can't imagine another defense secretary throwing up the kinds of obstacles he did."

Though various military bases had been mobilized into a state of alert well before the advance team's tour, Rumsfeld's aversion to using active-duty troops was evident: "There's no doubt in my mind," says one of Bush's close advisers today, "that Rumsfeld didn't like the concept."

The next day, three days after landfall, word of

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


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: blamegame; dod; gq; hurricane; katrina; liberalmedia; military; rumsfeld
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To: balch3

Funny how Dems dont talk about the ice storms Obama ignred while eating $100 Kobe beef and doing the Conga Line.


61 posted on 05/20/2009 4:48:57 PM PDT by PghBaldy (There's abortion, and then there's infanticide. Obama supports both.)
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To: eureka!

My l’il fact sheet says the response time to Katrina was 3x faster than Hurricane Andrew.


62 posted on 05/20/2009 5:00:39 PM PDT by madameguinot (Our Father's God to Thee, Author of Liberty)
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To: fleagle

*How can two million blacks get into Washington D.C. in sub zero temps in one day when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans at 85 degrees with four days notice.

A councilman in Jersey sent an e-mail with that joke after 0’s inauguration. He got in trouble for it. I think it’s funny...funny ‘cause it’s true. *

Amusing, but of course, DC is 95 percent black and many more blacks live in DC metro. As for the remainder, they did have FOUR months to make travel plans, not four days.


63 posted on 05/20/2009 6:59:04 PM PDT by j-damn
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To: centurion316; Recovering_Democrat

The reason for Blanco and friends delaying the request for federal help is they were hassling with Washington over who would control the billions of dollars sure to be involved. The local Democrats wanted to divide the spoils as they saw fit and Washington would not agree. For several days no one was in charge because of this.

The Democrats finally gave in but then turned the tables and blamed Bush for everything imaginable, including causing the hurricane..


64 posted on 05/20/2009 7:56:12 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government)
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To: Mind-numbed Robot

I believe you.

But the Constitutionally illiterate LameStream Media doesn’t know enough to look into such things.

I really think there is a bit of political retardation in the field known as “journalism” today.


65 posted on 05/21/2009 7:04:13 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat (I'm SO glad I no longer belong to the party of Dependence on Government!)
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To: madameguinot

Re#62 Good morning and you are so right. The MSM are liars beyond belief. May there be karma...


66 posted on 05/21/2009 8:39:32 AM PDT by eureka! (Elections have consequences, boy howdy. *sigh*)
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To: j-damn
"Amusing, but of course, DC is 95 percent black and many more blacks live in DC metro. As for the remainder, they did have FOUR months to make travel plans, not four days."

I tried to make that point way back when this "joke" started making the rounds. No one seemed to understand that the two situations cannot be compared. I'm glad that you saw it too.

67 posted on 05/25/2009 1:48:57 AM PDT by Mila
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To: balch3
The blame for lack of a military {as in National Guard availability} should go to congress. Here's why. Since 1995 Congress did absolutely nothing but sit on it's Pork Social Spending Behinds while our military did without even through today. The Congress, Poppy Bush, Bill Clinton, and Junior all equally let military needs come in low priority on their agenda's.

In doing so they reduced the Active Duty End Troop Strength Numbers in 1996 to a level still used today give or take a few thousand. This in turn put more of the burden for active duty call up for foreign deployment on reserves including State National Guards which technically are U.S. Army. Many National Guard Units are also key elements in state emergency management. By tradition the guards covered most disasters including flooding and even search and rescue in some cases.

This should have never happened. The National Guard role in Iraq should have been measured in months and for the most part not deployed there.

Now Rummy was by no means a great Sec of Defense either time. His first time many forget about and like to blame Jimmy Carter solely for a mess Rummy also helped create under Ford. IOW Rummy was not a good choice for Sec of Defense. He left a mess in 1977 and he left one again later. The Ford and Carter years were more or less the same. Gerald Ford had more in common with Carter policy wise than any Republican including Nixon.

On another interesting note Ford not Carter fist gave state sponsored terrorism the green light. Ford signed an EO prohibiting covert Ops from taking out foreign leaders. Fear of retribution was lost by M.E. leaders who sponsi\ored terrorist acts. Carter signed such as well as did Reagan. The difference being Reagan sent in a military strike to deal with such problems.

68 posted on 05/25/2009 2:28:34 AM PDT by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgement? Which one say ye?)
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