Posted on 05/20/2009 1:59:15 PM PDT by balch3
A report on the GQ magazine Web site is quoting unnamed former Bush administration official as blaming former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for many failures, including a delay in military assistance in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The report says "in speaking with the former Bush officials, it becomes evident that Rumsfeld impaired administration performance on a host of matters extending well beyond Iraq to impact America's relations with other nations, the safety of our troops, and the response to Hurricane Katrina.
The Washington Monthly highlights more of Robert Draper's article in GQ:
"[T]hree years later, when I asked a top White House official how he would characterize Rumsfeld's assistance in the response to Hurricane Katrina, I found out why. "It was commonly known in the West Wing that there was a battle with Rumsfeld regarding this," said the official. "I can't imagine another defense secretary throwing up the kinds of obstacles he did."
Though various military bases had been mobilized into a state of alert well before the advance team's tour, Rumsfeld's aversion to using active-duty troops was evident: "There's no doubt in my mind," says one of Bush's close advisers today, "that Rumsfeld didn't like the concept."
The next day, three days after landfall, word of
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I am no fan of Donald Rumsfeld, as a search of my posting on this forum will confirm. But, I don’t think that this one can be laid at his doorstep.
When I arrived in Hattisburg, MS 5 days after Katrina, the JTF over at Camp Shelby was in disarray and was just trying to figure out how to bed everyone down and get chow. The 82d Abn Div Aviation Bde Cdr was trying to control his brigade and coordinate air support from the NO executive airport lounge on his cell phone. I found Russ Honore at the Superdome with a two-man IMARSAT team trying to bring some order to ongoing events. We had plenty of time to chat because his comms where pretty minimal.
But, my assessment was that this state of affairs was due almost exclusively to Governor Blanco’s refusal to let federal troops in early and to assume command and control for the military support to civilian authority. The military knows how to do this and can work miracles in short order, but they have to get permission from the Governor first. That was not forthcoming. In my view, that was deliberate and thought out long before Katrina showed up. Blanco was the only Democrat Governor along the entire Gulf and Southern reach of the Atlantic coast. Republican Governors would swing into action, as did Governor Barbour of Mississippi making a scheme to blame Bush problematic. But, in Louisiana, there was a chance for political sabatoge and that’s what Blanco did. Shepard Smith and the rest of the media idiots gleefully played their parts in this little drama. Perhaps someone who really knows what went on will someday tell the whole story.
That’s why I think that as long as there is still a MSM setting the headlines and the perceptions, it’s too soon to talk about “dinosaur media”. If they ever admit that they’re going down, they’ll take down America with them.
Love it!
President Bush was disqualified from the competition after that picture was made public of him wearing shorts, socks, and a pair of Crocs.
Yeah that one, who with her crying jag on television looked like a neurotic hysterical female having PMS.
I appreciate your insight. You might be right, but there is a more parsimonious answer: She was completely incompetent!
What little I know of that man, I like.
That would be news to General Sherman and a host of others. Including MacArthur, Patton, Eisenhower, and Washington. There is absolutely nothing in Constitution to prevent it. Washington, who surely knew not only what was in the Constitution, but what it meant, led federal troops, and federalized militia, in numbers rivaling the size of the entire Continental Army during the late Revolution, to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Directly under Washington were Alexander Hamilton and "Light Horse Harry" Lee.
Later Marines and soldiers, under the leadership of then Colonel Robert E. Lee, were used against John Brown and his band of abolitionists at Harper's Ferry Virginia (Now West Virgina).
The MSM and the rats know this, lying to suit their purpose is no sin to them.
Or Obama's?
As of last week, blacks, which were 67.2 percent of the pre-storm population of New Orleans, account for 50.9 percent of the city victims so far identified by race. It was New Orleans Caucasians who died way out of proportion to their numbers-28 percent of the population, 45.6 percent of the city’s known Katrina deaths by race.
Exactly the media let it all slide. Don’t forget his $20,000 pizza ordering as well.
In a storm those that live on welfare, white,black,purple and gold... all want a limo to pick them up and take them to the Hilton.
So do I. I've spoken, very briefly, with his cousin, also an Honore, who is an Army Colonel. He said one of them is a country boy, and the other a city kid, and I can't remember which is which. :) I think Russell, the General, is the country boy, but I wouldn't swear by it.
Ah, there is General Honore, LLC site. And he is indeed the country boy from Lakeland, Louisiana, so that would make his cousin from the "Big City" of Red Stick (Baton Rouge). He's also got a book out Survival, How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family from Disasters
Another one for my list.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471729/posts
Hurricane Katrina....all “Live” threads from days before and after the storm.
Facts on who said what when, who did what when, what decisions were made, when and why.
To counter MSM/DNC lies.
That book goes on my list. I am especially interested in the survivalism movement lately, and it would be interesting to read a take on survivalism by a man from the neighboring state so similar (in topography, etc) to my own, Mississippi.
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