Posted on 09/09/2005 8:41:49 PM PDT by jmc1969
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
LANG had a big site right outside of NO...I'm not certain, but I think it got hit pretty hard, and their being deployed may have saved a few of them.
Going to fight the terrorists in Iraq is preferable to fighting them in New Orleans. Especially during a hurricane clean up.
Talk about turnin your mole hill into a mountain.
The general just gave the DNC their talking points for the week, maybe longer.
I thought they already tried this. Even the Governor didn't try that; she commented that she still had thousands of National Guard available for the relief efforts.
Does he think they would've been able to persuade the governor to let them get to work sooner than she finally did?
After reading this garbage, it sounds like the DNC has been giving the General their talking points. Either that or he's one of those morons that just doesn't know when to shut up.
(jmc1969, this isn't addressed to you, but the whole thread.) Actually, this means we should never deploy outside anywhere our troops are stationed, right? Ridiculous. So, let's have more troops, active, reserve and guard. We're repeating England's error of too few troops to deal with our commitments, present and future. Our military is too lean.
"The general just gave the DNC their talking points for the week, maybe longer."
Yep. I often wonder why some generals say the things they do.
"arguably" that may be true... but who is arguing?
Either that or he was taken out of context, was supposing a worst case scenario, or was smoking something made in a lab. Your suggestion sounds more plausible.
Sure. Let's all blame Bush.
In fact, let's blame Bush's family, his distant relatives, his entire family tree, personal acquaintances, people he spoke to last week, and his dog. Yeah, I said his dog. I'm pretty darn sure his dog bears some responsibility for allowing this natural disaster to occur.
Just thank God that Governor Blankout and Mayor Whoizname were on the ball, otherwise this thing could hve gotten out of control.
The remaining 8000 Louisiana National Guardsmen are just incompetent or what?
Is this guy running for President in 2008?
Most likely, or a Clinton promotee.
Blum is very intelligent and is a very savvy politician. He also worked his way up to Major General in a very liberal Democratic state, which makes me think he is giving the DNC the talking points rather than the reverse.
Darn it the new talking points for tomorrow. Peta will be there saying, "Bush hates white dogs."
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