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Via atrios, Jack Kelly:
It is settled wisdom among journalists that the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was unconscionably slow.
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A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?
Mr. Kelly seems very ready to defend the National Guard against what he seems to perceive as an attack against their response time or their competence. He then seems to try deflect that perceived blame on to local governments for not evacuating citizens. (Note: I've seen a hell of a lot of journalists asking about NO's failure to use their busses well.)
The funny thing about that is that I haven't heard any serious critisism of the Guard or the military in general (and I have been paying attention) except for some general feelings of unease about martial law being delcared in NOLA. The critisism I have heard has generally been going two places: 1. Local officials for not evacuating (or preventing the evacuation of) civilians and ; 2. FEMA and the civilian Federal response.
There have been some scathing indictments of New Orleans' (and the surrounding areas) failure to evacuate people, especially the poor. Worse still, it seems that people were physically prevented from leaving New Orleans by police from nearby areas.
But by far, I think, the lion's share of the critisism has been leveled at FEMA and the President for their seeming incompence and vacationing respectively. FEMA director Brown and his immediate subordinates showed their ignorance, incompetence and disregard for the situation on the Gulf Coast very publically. The President was on vacation for the entire hurricane. NOLA was formally declared a national disaster area about 70 hours before Bush came near it. The governor of Louisiana declared the state a disaster area and it took a couple days for the paperwork on the federal level. If there's shame to be handed out, it goes to the administration, not the National Guard. For timelines on all of this see ThinkProgress or NPR.
I don't know if Mr. Kelly is being partisan and trying to shore up the administration's position by blaming local officials (and using the Guard as a federal red herring), or if he has just seen a lot of media critisim of the National Guard that no one else has. Either way I think we will both agree that if there's blame to be given, it shouldn't be going to the National Guard.
The army, the hurricane and the future
An interesting little view into the Army, in light of the disaster:
As everyone knows, the National Gaurd is being mobilized (throughout the nation, ie. from all states, and possibly the district). Interestingly, all the PMSs, the heads of all Army ROTC programs in the nation, got an email from the commanding general of Cadet Command saying that if cadets get mobilized and sent to the NOLA area that there will be nothing the PMSs can do.
Let me explain the way a couple things work. 1. ROTC/West Point/OCS are the way the Army makes officers. We need officers, and officers take a lot longer to make than do privates, etc. We cost more money and have longer commitments because of it. 2. ROTC Cadets who do SMP, the Simultaneous Membership Program, are simultaneously cadets and members of National Gaurd units. This allows them to train and gain expirience with units that they will eventually go into once they commission. And, because the Army realizes that they would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, those cadets can not be federalized (ie. sent to Iraq). However they can be mobilized as part of a state action, and in this case, can be sent to the NOLA area for god knows how long.
This is not a complaint in any way. Cadets know that as National Gaurd folk that they can be called up at any time. Almost all joined the the Army after September 11, and know that we are at war. Most expect to be called up and deployed once they commission. The one major difference here is that this natural disaster will have a much longer shelf life than many others. I have no idea how long the NG will be deployed, but it will be a long damn time. I also have no numbers as to how many cadets around the nation will be affected by this. It does mean that some measurable number of cadets will not commission on time, and will have to recycle to the graduating class one year back. This will probably not be a large impact, but I just don't know.
It is just one more way that the nation and the Army will be affected by this disaster. Yet another thing to think about.
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