Aug 1, 2005: National Guard Wants Equipment to Come Back From Iraq

[Synnical]

http://abc26.trb.com/news/natguard08012005,0,4504131.story

Yunji de Nies

August 1, 2005, 9:07 PM CDT

JACKSON BARRACKS -- When members of the Louisiana National Guard left for Iraq in October, they took a lot equipment with them. Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad, and in the event of a major natural disaster that, could be a problem.

"The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," said Lt. Colonel Pete Schneider with the LA National Guard.

Col. Schneider says the state has enough equipment to get by, and if Louisiana were to get hit by a major hurricane, the neighboring states of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have all agreed to help.

"As Governor Bush did for Ivan, after they were hit so many times, he just maxed all of his resources out, he reached out to Louisiana and we sent 200 national guardsmen to help support in recovery efforts," Col. Schneider said.

[RageFist]

1. Day late, Dollar short

Makes you wonder where the $400B a year goes... not to mention $200B for the war itself.

[G_j]

2. Wow! nominated

good find, bookmarked

[Synnical]

3. Actually, credit for finding it goes to Robert_F_Donovan

Became aware of the article in comments made here:

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/09/chertoff_blames.php

We Democrats should not make this a political issue, but this is another instance in which the Administration's national and homeland security policy has failed to provide national and homeland security. That is something we must hold the Administration accountable for.

I'm a New Yorker, and looking at the throngs of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina reminds me of the scene down the street from my apartment on the West Side of New York on September 11 - confused, displaced crowds wandering up away from ground zero with minimal emergency response infrastructure in place to accommodate them.

The key differences:

-9/11 was unforeseen, the path of Hurricane Katrina was predicted.
-this Administration has had almost 5 years (to the day) to develop the capacity to respond to large-scale emergencies, like a 9/11. We now have a Department of Homeland Security.
-on 9/11, the New York and Louisiana National Guard forces were largely in - you guessed it - New York and Louisiana; today, they are - you guessed it - in Iraq. Much of the heavy equipment that the National Guard forces could use is in Iraq as well... (See ABC News article "LA National Guard Wants Equipment to Come Back From Iraq", Yunji de Nies, August 1, 2005, 9:07 PM CDT).

This is not a political criticism, it’s a policy critique – one my by a Democrat of a Republican.

Posted by Robert_F_Donovan on September 1, 2005 at 12:43 PM