Posted on 09/06/2005 3:09:59 PM PDT by mdittmar
ARLINGTON, Va. — Amid growing criticism that Hurricane Katrina relief efforts moved too slowly, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chief of Staff Richard B. Myers said Tuesday that there was no delay in getting aid to victims.
Asked why it took days to get National Guard troops moving to the area hit by the hurricane, Rumsfeld replied, “It didn’t.”
The Defense Department began pre-positioning assets in the area before the storm hit, he said.
“Not only was there no delay, I think we anticipated in most cases — not in all cases, but in most cases, the support that was required,” Myers said.
But lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, have ripped the federal relief effort as disorganized and inadequate.
“Once the immediate crisis is addressed, there will be many serious questions to answer about the speed and quality of the federal government’s response to this horrific disaster. As the President himself has said, the results of the recovery effort are not acceptable,” Hagel said in a statement Tuesday.
Rumsfeld acknowledged that under the current system the first responders are state and local officials who can be rendered “incapable of functioning” by conditions on the ground.
Still, Myers said the National Guard response to the disaster was “very quick.”
“We can never be perfect in a tragedy like this,” Myers said.
Rumsfeld and Myers were asked why authorities did not airdrop more food to hurricane victims stranded at the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center.
Rumsfeld said aircraft had to be flown out of the area before the hurricane hit and then had to bring them back.
He noted that one Air National Guard unit equipped with eight helicopters had flown about 800 missions in five days, rescuing more than 6,000 people.
Helicopters on scene were focused primarily on saving lives; getting food and other provisions to people in need came second, Myers said.
Last week, a Louisiana state official said authorities had decided against massive airdrops out of fear that they might cause riots.
Also Tuesday, Rumsfeld was asked if deployments in Iraq were hindering hurricane relief efforts.
“That’s flat-out wrong,” he said. “Anyone who is saying that doesn’t understand the situation.”
Truth ping
lies I tell you. All lies.Sarcasm off.
You tell em Rummy. All this delay nonsense is the work of corrupt dem mayor and governor crying their eyes out to deflect the blame they richly deserve.
I was greatly disappointed in FOX today when they cut immediately after a reporter asked if first response was the local and state responsibility. Does anyone know what Rummy answered or did all networks sneak out on that one so the general public could continue to blame Bush?
"Amid growing criticism that Hurricane Katrina relief efforts moved too slowly,"
I'm SO sick of hearing this sh*t...
A Los Angeles caller on Hannity today said that from the time she was a little girl, she heard and understood that every household needed to keep 3 days worth of water, food and other provisions because it could take at least that long for assistance to come after a major earthquake.
"I was greatly disappointed in FOX today when they cut immediately after a reporter asked if first response was the local and state responsibility. Does anyone know what Rummy answered or did all networks sneak out on that one so the general public could continue to blame Bush?"
Rummy was gone when the question was asked.
Really? I wasn't looking at the screen. Whom was it directed to?
Hagel should just admit he's a 'Rat and change parties.
pingy dingy
If the public could have seen more pictures of this and less of the Super Dome, maybe perceptions of the whole situation would be different. So much of public perception seems to hinge on where the cameras happen to be set up. This is certainly the case in Iraq and is probably the case with Katrina.
What they failed to mention was that from the beginning of the flooding, helicopters from the USS Bataan were plucking people from rooftops.
Awaiting orders from who? Blanco?
From whom, from whom!
Such "experts' also don't want to discuss the cold fact that while 6,000 were removed by helicopter at enormous cost, nearly 400 buses didn't evacuate some 24,000 people and were ruined by flood water because the 'POSM-Mayor & 'POSM-Governor were grossly incompetent.
POSM' = Piece of Sh*t, Maximum. Also a reference to the legendary stupidity of the opossum.
Figure the cost of some 400 school buses, add the costs of the 800 helicopter missions needed to save those 6,000 people and you begin to get a small glimmer of the cost of the incompetency of those two 'POSM officials.
Then figure the human suffering of just the 18,000 people that could have been removed in just one trip on those now ruined buses. Four trips in those buses and some 100,000 people could have been evacuated.
That means 200,000 hands rested and ready to help restore their homes. But the two 'POSMs were making tracks out of town and earning their 'POSM titles.
Come the next election, sounds like fried 'POSM will be on everyone's mind.
In the meantime, we should reward good behavior.
One student saved both a bus and some 70 fellow N.O. residents. How about giving him either the 'POSM-Mayor's job or the 'POSM-Governor's job?
But why didn't the president rush to the coast before the hurricane and order it to turn around. That's what a great leader, like Canute, would have done.
"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." http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200509020719.asp
"Last week, a Louisiana state official said authorities had decided against massive airdrops out of fear that they might cause riots"
Considering what we know of what happened at the superdome, that is no doubt what WOULD have happened. And then the headlines would be, 'FEDS START RIOTS"
Another thought....maybe the reason that Shep, Geraldo, Anderson and the like didn't take water and food into the area with them when they were lambasting the feds was because THEY WERE AFRAID OF THE SAME THING>
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