Despite what you think, the President does not have almighty powers. And imagine the uproar on here if he (or bill/Hillary Clinton) did.
The 82nd Airborne/Marines or any other military unit can not be instantly deployed by the President snapping his fingers and saying "Make it so." They must be mobilized, and that may take a few days to do - and it did.
What do we know about bureaucracies? They don't move fast - that's for sure. The federal government is the biggest bureaucracy around - it doesn't matter if we are talking DOD, State or DHS/FEMA.
The key point of the article is that emergency management is local and there is a process to kick it up to the feds. It is amazing that no one is mentioning that New Orleans and LA have long been known to be the most corrupt governments in the country (Philly gives them a run for the money).
What role did corruption and malfeasance of local officials in New Orleans play in this disaster? I can guarantee that it is a big part of the problem.
When you have an unprecedented disaster involving 90,000 square miles involving millions of people across several states, the Federal Government must take the lead. Damn the uproar if it means lives will be saved. That is what leadership is all about. If GWB (read FEMA and Homeland Security) had taken the lead earlier on, more lives would have been saved. GWB would have been lionized by the American people if he had taken this action. Besides, GWB is not running again for election.
The 82nd Airborne/Marines or any other military unit can not be instantly deployed by the President snapping his fingers and saying "Make it so." They must be mobilized, and that may take a few days to do - and it did.
They don't have to be mobilized. They are ready to go anywhere in the world with less than 24 hours notice. They should have been on standby before the hurricane hit.
The key point of the article is that emergency management is local and there is a process to kick it up to the feds. It is amazing that no one is mentioning that New Orleans and LA have long been known to be the most corrupt governments in the country (Philly gives them a run for the money).
That's what I am railing against--process. There is no doubt that the city and state governments are inept and corrupt. They are not unique. The bottom line is that we had thousands and thousands of Americans in mortal danger. Forget about the process and save lives. Let the chips fall where they may.
It does no good to send a bunch of copters if there is no fuel, no maintenance and no air traffic control to keep plane traffic flowing at the airport.
It's a lot easier to get people out of harm's way before a hurrican than afterwards. And NOLA was damn lucky that there was no direct hit that would have made evacuation after the storm an order of magnitude more difficult - and casualties could have topped 50,000 in such a scenario.
Good post. Let's never forget what happened when one president DID take the law into his own hands and break the law in order to put an end to a bad situation. A lot of innocent people died in WACO. Sure, a lot of innococent people died in NO too, but that is first and foremost the fault of the local government. The mayor who didn't follow the emergency plan and the governor who refused federal help. They did nothing to help those people, though they had PLENTY of time for TV and radio interviews from a nice, safe distance.