I seldom watch Fox News given it always seems louder than other channels other than when Brit Hume is doing his Dick Cheney voice.
I decided to flip by and caught Geraldo and Shepard Smith having full fledged conniptions–and reasonably so, but you have to see it to believe it.
After Geraldo drew the map in Iraq, you might think he’d try it here…
That is incredible. Hannity is devoid of a soul.
There’s been a lot of coverage like that. Yesterday, I watched Shep Smith flag downs some police officers to help a baby…
…I’ve had some conversations with experts in recent years on mass casulty events. What if a nuke went off in LA, that sort of thing. The plan always begins with local officials respond with fire, rescue, policy, the Guard and other professionals. But, obviously, the NO first responders were victims, too. They were unable evacuate, regroup after the storm, communicate, and mount an effective recovery. All they could do is wait for pre-positioned federal aid to arrive…And that still takes time.
After we autopsy the event and find out what went wrong and right, I wonder if we’ll re-think the paradigm that local officials respond first and maybe develop some kind of specialized regional rapid deployment forces. I know we say it’s the National Guard’s role, but they take time to mobilize too.
I’m afraid we still see a continued trend toward a failure of our institutions. We’ve seen corporate America, the intelligence community, the civil justice system, our energy grid, state and local governments in myriad circumstances all fail since the end of the Cold War. NO is just one more example.
At the State Level, it still boggles my mind that the National Guard wasn’t activated and prepositioned in Baton Rouge for a quick response. I know they only really had about 48 hours, but Louisiana should have gotten their contingent in further. Even if they couldn’t get everyone to report–have it start and then resume when the storm passed and then haul ass down there.
Lots of mistakes, but that one is the first question to me.
The governor could have acted a little more quickly requesting additional NG support. It would have done little. The entire area needed much more & should have received it 24 – 36 hrs after the NO levee broke.
Troops move AFTER receiving the order. If no one is available to give the order, nothing moves. The president had to make time in his busy vacation schedule to give his attention to a catastrophe that was predicted years ago.
The man has his priorities. As for the VP, he chooses to continue “working” from his Jackson, WY, home.
In the event of a state emergency (natural disasters) it is the Governor who is the Commander-in-Chief, not the President. In local emergencies it is the Governor who mobilizes the National Guard, not the President. States also have agreements, with Congressional approval per the Constitution, to form pacts w/other states in emergencies.
In sum, failure to call up the National Guard was a state failure not a national one.
The National Guard plays a dual role. It has a state and federal mission. Its traditional primary role is state service, not national. They are the state militia. It is a matter of law who can call up what and when. There is no serious blame on that front you can lay at the Federal Government’s feet.
Alison, here is a good description taken from the Globalsecurity.org that explains the dual role of the Guard:
“The charter for the National Guard lies in the United States Constitution, providing for a dual state/federal role for the Guard. The “state” part of the dual role designates the governor as commander in chief of the Guard in his or her state allowing the use of Guard personnel and units as he or she sees fit to provide for the security and well-being of the state’s citizens and property. The “federal” part of the dual role provides for personnel and units of the Guard to be called from the state into active federal service under control of the United States Government in time of national crisis.
You see, the LA Governor had the authority to mobilize the Guard, there is no need to wait for the President.
The initial mobilization was Blanco’s responsibility and she didn’t do it soon enough. I don’t fully understand the time it takes to mobilize, but it hadn’t begun before the storm. Certainly given the likely scope specific regular military units should have been on alert but the initial force into the city would have been state. I think we probably learned that when this bad of a storm is coming, we might want to federalize troops and move more proactively, but that’s not the SOP for Monday and before.
While it’s the governor’s responsibility to mobilize the NG, more help was obviously needed. I’m talking about using ALL federal assets. That can’t happen without the governor requesting it of the WH. Someone has to be available to receive the request. Notice all those assets are now on site AFTER Pres. Bush’s visit. It took a little doing, but he successfully worked it into his busy vacation schedule.
Blanco definitely took too long. The president took even longer, & the VP prefers to work from home — still. While mobilization prior to the event isn’t SOP, the WH could have placed all assets on alert. They would’ve been packed & ready to go for Mon/Tue. once everyone saw that the state was over it’s head. That didn’t happen when it should have.
When I was regular Army, I would’ve been supplying communication support in an MSC van for the local government if Hurricane Frederick had been worse & the request was granted. I would’ve been sent to Ft. Monroe, VA, or Ft. Detrick, MD, to hurry up & wait prior to that. The president has to be accessible for the governor to request federal assets to augment state resources. He took his time making himself accessible.
When this is all over & KC FEMA comes back to town for our monthly meetings, we’ll be discussing this. It’ll be interesting to see how procedures change. That’s ineveitable. St. Louis has some great plans in place. If given a choice, I’d still rather be on my side of the river if the New Madrid gets active again.