“I include the National Guard in that [volunteers].”
I hope Texas has not been having the problem that occurred in Katrina that a lot of the National Guard was busy with Iraq and couldn’t help out then.
I think we actually need two types of Guard. The National Guard with the current obligations and benefits and a Home Guard with lesser benefits that can only be used for emergencies in the 50 states and territories. I think there would be additional volunteers for a Home Guard, knowing they could not be sent out of country.
Wasn’t there a Home Guard during the time of the Civil War?
I don’t know what the answer is but when you have people in elected offices running the show, egos are going to clash.. Overall, excluding the look and leave program, it sounds like things are going ok..problems fixed as they come up...that’s about all rescuers can do.
That never happened, and that assertion was simply another in a long list of lies put out by the MSM and the LA and nat'l Democrat politicians as part of their efforts to smear the Bush administration and deflect attention away from their own incompetence and unpreparedness.
While it is a "fact" that a lot of National Guard were busy in Iraq (and still are), the assertion that this caused a shortage of Guard personnel and resources for Katrina relief was a flat-out lie. The reason there were delays in getting Guard resources involved was that LA Gov. Kathleen Blanco refused to give her okay, as required by law, despite repeated urgings from President Bush.
In fairness, however, Bush bears the full blame for failing or refusing to publicly call her on it. For whatever reason, that failure of command and leadership on his part allowed her and the MSM to win the PR battle and convince the American public that Bush and his administration were primarily to blame for all the aid debacles of Katrina.
As subsequent history shows, the Katrina episode, and many other examples of his mind-boggling inability or refusal to recognize that there are certain enemies who must be confronted and defeated rather than placated and appeased, has cost him, and us, dearly.