Don't Militarize Disaster Relief

[NATO AIR]

We're continuing to ask the military to do too much.

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200509300804.asp

God vs. War
Don’t militarize disaster relief.

Nobody looked good during the Katrina response, except the U.S. military. In keeping with Washington’s habit of always fixing yesterday’s problem in ways that might cause trouble tomorrow, the military’s star performance in Katrina means that it might get the lead role in any significant natural disaster in the future.

Democrats have long clamored for more “first responders.” Well, now they are about to get 1.4 million of them. President Bush has said that the lesson from Katrina is that we need “a broader role for the armed forces — the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment’s notice.” Instead of using the military as a last resort in such large-scale disasters, the administration is considering going to it first and removing legal obstacles to such a role. This is a seductive but mistaken idea.

The military’s response to Katrina was impressive, especially compared with the Department of Homeland Security. Like the pope in Stalin’s barb, the DHS has no “divisions,” and is a ramshackle product of the biggest bureaucratic reorganization in 50 years. “It can be viable,” an administration official says of the department, “but not in this decade.”

So the DHS is on the outs. For such a bold crew, the Bush administration has shown a remarkable ability to be buffeted by the latest fads. It was against the creation of a homeland-security department, before it was for it. It was against the 9/11 commission, before it was for it. It was lukewarm on implementing the 9/11 commission’s recommendation of a pointless reorganization of the intelligence bureaucracy, before it was for it. Now it is for the latest hot new idea — militarization of disaster relief — to make up for the deficiencies of the last hot new idea, the DHS.

Of course, the military has crept further into disaster response already, since we face the specter of massive terrorist acts on our shores. But a terror attack is an act of war, whereas a hurricane is an act of God. The latter is a purely domestic matter in a way that the former isn’t.

The current obstacles to calling on federal troops are hardly insurmountable. A governor can simply ask for them, as Gov. Pete Wilson did in 1992 during the L.A. riots. The problem in New Orleans was that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco wouldn’t ask.

Even in this situation, the president has awesome powers. Bush could have invoked the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to go over Blanco’s head to use troops to quell the unrest; it just would have been politically risky for him. That’s not such a bad thing. Such speed bumps are useful in a political system that values checks on governmental power. If we wanted simply the most efficient government possible, we wouldn’t have federalism and the U.S. Congress in the first place.

 

[Annie]

Eddie, we spoke of this over the weekend. I concur.

 

[NATO AIR]

Eddie, we spoke of this over the weekend. I concur.

Indeed.
:cof:

 

[William Joyce]

Posse Comitatus is another good reason not to dispatch federal military forces against American citizens (or to "help" them, as they say).

 

[dilloduck]

Posse Comitatus is another good reason not to dispatch federal military forces against American citizens (or to "help" them, as they say).

Agreed--disasters damage locally first and if locals expect ANYONE to come in and save their asses, they will not do the work nor spend the money to prepare. After the feds leave it is apparent that the social disaster marches on as local organizations prove how unprepared they are to deal with squat.

 

[Hagbard Celine]

This is the problem, soldiers aren't police officers. They're asking soldiers to be police officers in Iraq and in disaster areas. They're not trained to be cops or aid workers or anything else! They're trained to fight other armies! JHC! :duh3:

 

[insein]

Soldiers are excellent at following orders. Thats why they are good in relief efforts. The ranks are already delegated and orders are expected to be followed when given.

In these civilian operations, there is too much bureaucracy within local and state governments to get anything done FAST! They need a rapid response team that has a plan in place for almost any situation and has the resources at hand to execute it within hours not weeks.

Thats why the military is leaned on so much. We have to reform our politicians if we want effective relief aid to happen. It will be interesting to see if politics overrides survival when Nagin and Blanco come up for reelection. If they get reelected by the same people that were clamoring for aid, then we know politics has too strong a grasp to break.

 

[dilloduck]

Soldiers are excellent at following orders. Thats why they are good in relief efforts. The ranks are already delegated and orders are expected to be followed when given.

In these civilian operations, there is too much bureaucracy within local and state governments to get anything done FAST! They need a rapid response team that has a plan in place for almost any situation and has the resources at hand to execute it within hours not weeks.

Thats why the military is leaned on so much. We have to reform our politicians if we want effective relief aid to happen. It will be interesting to see if politics overrides survival when Nagin and Blanco come up for reelection. If they get reelected by the same people that were clamoring for aid, then we know politics has too strong a grasp to break.

The only way to get local and state folks to respond is to hold them accountable as opposed to blaming FEMA. Will anyone do that? I doubt it.
(Nagins' and Blancos' base voters are spread all over the place---any doubt as to why they want them to come back to New Orleans ? It's even harder to rig the vote when you don't even have a population.)

 

[Hagbard Celine]

as opposed to blaming FEMA

I think the shoe fits pretty well in this case. Who else was there to blame for the botched relief effort?

 

[Annie]

I think the shoe fits pretty well in this case. Who else was there to blame for the botched relief effort?

Well, Naggins and Blanco should have been there, but they high tailed it to Baton Rouge, leaving their voters behind-along with the buses from their disaster plan.

 

[insein]

I think the shoe fits pretty well in this case. Who else was there to blame for the botched relief effort?

The local goverments were terrible. Missippippi, Alabama and Florida all had relief efforts well underway with little interference from FEMA. FEMA is meant to assist the local governments with resources. They are not meant to come in guns blazing in place of the local governments. Nagin and Blanco dropped the ball and then shifted the blame to FEMA in order to escape any criticism. We need only look at Florida over the last 2 years to see how well FEMA worked with the local Governments to send aide to the areas that needed it. FEMA can't work as well if the local governments don't tell them what they want done. Then it takes longer to respond as we all saw.