[XEHRpa]

> It's very obvious they had NO (zero, nada, zilch) real plan or planning capability.

Anyone who choses to even live in a below-sea-level city surrounded by water already brings to the table an amazing capacity for self-deception. And not only at the political level, but I just heard a guy on Scarborough Country (MSNBC) talking about his wife stranded at one of the hospitals. He said they had the generator IN THE BASEMENT. I can think of few strategic plans more foolish than this.

Naturally, it failed at the first hint of flooding.

[bvw]

In his never-quite-finished opus "On War", the Austrian teacher and officer, Karl Von Clausewitz, encourages plans and planning. Not, says Clausewitz, so that a particular plans will be carried out, much less perfectly carried out -- but because by making plans and developing the planning capability, an institution or organization trains itself to deal with situations as they happen. At the onset of war, says Clausewitz, iirc, "Plans go out the window." But the strengths of the planners, and the abilities to coordinate, to adapt, to communicate of the organization that are developed by active planning, are the real strength of a military.

We saw in NYC on 911 a great city organization, refined by such planning.

Did they have a plan for two heavy fuel-loaded airliners flying into the WTC towers? Of course not! But they had all the organizational capability and resources that a long program of active planning gave them. And once so trained in dealing with all the various contigencies people come up with in doing active planning, they had no problem applying all that strength, that strength of preparedness, coordination and intellect. They behaved like adults.