Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said Iraq hurt Karina response. From Associated Press:
BAY ST. LOUIS, Mississippi (AP) -- The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered those states' initial storm response, military and civilian officials said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "arguably" a day or so of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq.
"Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear," said Blum.
Blum said that to replace those units' command and control equipment, he dispatched personnel from Guard division headquarters from Kansas and Minnesota shortly after the storm struck.
Blum also said that in a worst-case scenario up to 50,000 additional Guardsmen per month will be needed in Louisiana or Mississippi over the next four months to continue providing relief, law enforcement and other post-hurricane services.
Those 200,000 troops, if needed, would represent nearly two-thirds of the approximately 319,000 Guard troops available nationwide.
Blum said his staff has almost completed a plan for 30-day rotations of Guard units so that no one will have to serve in the Gulf Coast for more than a month.
There are about 30,000 Guardsmen in Iraq and a smaller number in Afghanistan, Kosovo and elsewhere overseas.
Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi, whose waterfront home in Bay St. Louis was washed away in the storm, told reporters the absence of the deployed Mississippi Guard units made it harder for local officials to coordinate their initial response.
"What you lost was a lot of local knowledge," Taylor said, as well as equipment that could have been used in recovery operations.
"The best equipment went with them, for obvious reasons," especially communications equipment, he added.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said this week the Pentagon has the ability to cope with both Katrina and the Iraq war: "We can and will do both."
Asked Tuesday about critics who said the commitment of large numbers of troops to the Iraq conflict hindered the military's response to Hurricane Katrina, Rumsfeld said, "Anyone who's saying that doesn't understand the situation."
Blum said that overall the Iraq mission for Guard units across the nation is not limiting the military's ability to expand and continue the rescue and recovery operations in storm-battered states.
"Iraq and other overseas commitments do not inhibit our ability to sustain this effort here at home," Blum said in an interview with three reporters who flew to Bay St. Louis with him Friday from Washington.
Blum and Taylor toured the heavily damaged areas around Bay St. Louis.
They also met with Guardsmen and other troops helping clean up and provide emergency assistance to those displaced by the wall of water that wiped out many homes and flooded a widespread area miles north of the coastline.
Blum also flew to New Orleans, where he met with troops and commanders and was given an extensive aerial tour of flooded portions of the city.
Afterward he flew to Baton Rouge and met with Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, commander of the military relief and recovery effort in the region.
Hurricane aid delay
Moderator: Dictators in Training
ONE politician certainly got off his ass: Favorite whipping boy of the right, Al Gore. Personally financed 2 evacuation flights that saved 270 people.
Compare that to what Brown & Chertoff were doing.
-Arlos
Gore airlifts Katrina victims out of New Orleans
Former vice president chartered 2 private aircraft
Friday, September 9, 2005; Posted: 5:46 p.m. EDT (21:46 GMT)
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.
Gore criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina in a speech Friday in San Francisco, but refused to be interviewed about the mercy missions he financed and flew on Sept. 3 and 4.
However, Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has."
An account of the flights was posted this week on a Democratic Party Web page. It was written by Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures. Simon, who helped put together the mission, also declined an interview.
On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute -- food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote.
Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.
"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."
He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.
Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.
About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Sept. 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga.
Compare that to what Brown & Chertoff were doing.
-Arlos
Phlegm, if that was spun any more, it'd dig a hole in the ground. This is HARDLY a strong argument... anywhere except AP or the NYT, that is.
This DOESNT explain why the Governor did not request other guard units, WHO PROACTIVELY CALLED AND OFFERED ASSISTANCE. Utter incompetence from Governor Blanco.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "arguably" a day or so of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq.
This DOESNT explain why the Governor did not request other guard units, WHO PROACTIVELY CALLED AND OFFERED ASSISTANCE. Utter incompetence from Governor Blanco.
lyion wrote:http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/r ... 020719.asp
So is the war in Iraq causing troop shortfalls for hurricane relief in New Orleans?
In a word, no.
A look at the numbers should dispel that notion. Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.
That’s all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.
So where are the rest? 751,000 (74.2 percent) are in the U.S. About half are active duty, and half Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the real issue of course — the Left wants you to believe that the country has been denuded of its citizen soldiers, and that Louisiana has suffered inordinately because Guardsmen and women who would have been available to be mobilized by the state to stop looting and aid in reconstruction are instead risking their lives in Iraq.
Not hardly. According to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 75 percent of the Army and Air National Guard are available nationwide. In addition, the federal government has agreed since the conflict in Iraq started not to mobilize more than 50 percent of Guard assets in any given state, in order to leave sufficient resources for governors to respond to emergencies.
In Louisiana only about a third of Guard personnel are deployed, and they will be returning in about a week as part of their normal rotation. The Mississippi Guard has 40 percent overseas.
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
– C. S. Lewis
– C. S. Lewis
Actually, Lyion, there's an article I posted to this very board that pointed out that Blanco DID accept aid from other guard units, in some cases BEFORE the hurricane hit. In at least one case, she accepted on Sunday, and the feds didn't actually process the paperwork til WEDNESDAY. Even AFTER the paperwork went through, it took them 24 hours to even start moving. How in hell is that Blanco's fault?
-Arlos
-Arlos
The Feds do not process the paperwork at all, Arlos. The paperwork goes through the military. Also, they can be deployed with just a phone call to a disaster area.
State Guard units are not controlled in Washington....
Anyways, the bigger problem was aid. Given Blanco blocked the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other rescue and relief efforts, it'd be good if you put the blame squarely where it belongs.
State Guard units are not controlled in Washington....
Anyways, the bigger problem was aid. Given Blanco blocked the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other rescue and relief efforts, it'd be good if you put the blame squarely where it belongs.
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
– C. S. Lewis
– C. S. Lewis
Sorry, it took me a few days to get back to this thread... but Minrott, could you be any stupider? Seriously.
By fucking definition middle class has it better than lower class. That is across the board. Ability to travel, ability to find temporary housing, ability to feed yourself, ability to do anything. Money is everything in this situation. Why do you think there is such a huge campaign going to send money down there? Obviously middle class can't go on indefinitely, that really isn't the fucking point.
This is fucking priceless. This is so blatantly stupid I can't even begin to disect it. I hope you were kidding, seriously.
It's about poor people, not black people. You're trying to deter speculation of racial motivations where there is no such speculation! Quite suspcious, maybe YOU are the racist trying to cover your tracks!
Yeah. Because middle class families can go on without income indefinately too. While cash on hand may have made a difference in who left immediately or not, I seriously doubt and of the middle class are playing badmitton and sipping pina coladas.
By fucking definition middle class has it better than lower class. That is across the board. Ability to travel, ability to find temporary housing, ability to feed yourself, ability to do anything. Money is everything in this situation. Why do you think there is such a huge campaign going to send money down there? Obviously middle class can't go on indefinitely, that really isn't the fucking point.
Nobody is too poor to walk.
This is fucking priceless. This is so blatantly stupid I can't even begin to disect it. I hope you were kidding, seriously.
I know mofish and it was a crude thing for me to say. I'm just sick and tired of hearing about how the only poor black people died. Like the middle class had it any better or that the government said to themselves "Oh, it's only poor black people dieing, manana is soon enough."
It's about poor people, not black people. You're trying to deter speculation of racial motivations where there is no such speculation! Quite suspcious, maybe YOU are the racist trying to cover your tracks!
The Feds do not process the paperwork at all, Arlos. The paperwork goes through the military. Also, they can be deployed with just a phone call to a disaster area.
Then the military fucked up too. Cause She DID accept aid BEFORE the hurricane hit from neighboring guard units, and the commander of said guard units didn't get his release until Wednesday. Look for the article I posted about it.
-Arlos
Lavish tastes of card-carrying lowlifes
Profiteering ghouls have been using debit cards distributed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina - intended to buy essentials for evacuated families - in luxury-goods stores as far away as Atlanta.
"We've seen three of the cards," said a senior employee of the Louis Vuitton store at the Lenox Square Mall in affluent Buckhead, who asked not to be named. "Two I'm certain have purchased; one actually asked if she could use it in the store. This has been since Saturday."
The distinctive white cards were distributed by the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and carry a value of up to $2,000.
"It doesn't say anything on the card other than alcohol, tobacco and firearms cannot be purchased with it," the store employee told me. "There's nothing legally that prevents us from taking it, unfortunately. Other than morally, it's wrong."
The source told me that the two women who had made purchases with the card each bought a signature monogrammed Louis Vuitton handbag in the $800 range.
"They didn't look destitute by any stretch. You would never have said, 'They must be one of the evacuees.' … The one that I dealt with yesterday was 20. She'll be 21 next month." The source described the reaction of other store-keepers in the mall - which includes luxury brands Ferragamo, Burberry, Judith Leiber and Neiman Marcus - as "outrage."
"It doesn't say anywhere on there, but it would have to be a good amount to be shopping in here," the source said with a dark chuckle.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/ ... 4601c.html
Profiteering ghouls have been using debit cards distributed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina - intended to buy essentials for evacuated families - in luxury-goods stores as far away as Atlanta.
"We've seen three of the cards," said a senior employee of the Louis Vuitton store at the Lenox Square Mall in affluent Buckhead, who asked not to be named. "Two I'm certain have purchased; one actually asked if she could use it in the store. This has been since Saturday."
The distinctive white cards were distributed by the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and carry a value of up to $2,000.
"It doesn't say anything on the card other than alcohol, tobacco and firearms cannot be purchased with it," the store employee told me. "There's nothing legally that prevents us from taking it, unfortunately. Other than morally, it's wrong."
The source told me that the two women who had made purchases with the card each bought a signature monogrammed Louis Vuitton handbag in the $800 range.
"They didn't look destitute by any stretch. You would never have said, 'They must be one of the evacuees.' … The one that I dealt with yesterday was 20. She'll be 21 next month." The source described the reaction of other store-keepers in the mall - which includes luxury brands Ferragamo, Burberry, Judith Leiber and Neiman Marcus - as "outrage."
"It doesn't say anywhere on there, but it would have to be a good amount to be shopping in here," the source said with a dark chuckle.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/ ... 4601c.html
Molon Labe
