NYT: Political Issues Snarled Plans for Troop Aid-sorry if already posted

[DemsUnited]

Political Issues Snarled Plans for Troop Aid

By ERIC LIPTON, ERIC SCHMITT
and THOM SHANKER
Published: September 9, 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, President Bush's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor.

For reasons of practicality and politics, officials at the Justice Department and the Pentagon, and then at the White House, decided not to urge Mr. Bush to take command of the effort. Instead, the Washington officials decided to rely on the growing number of National Guard personnel flowing into Louisiana, who were under Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's control.

The debate began after officials realized that Hurricane Katrina had exposed a critical flaw in the national disaster response plans created after the Sept. 11 attacks. According to the administration's senior domestic security officials, the plan failed to recognize that local police, fire and medical personnel might be incapacitated.

As criticism of the response to Hurricane Katrina has mounted, one of the most pointed questions has been why more troops were not available more quickly to restore order and offer aid. Interviews with officials in Washington and Louisiana show that as the situation grew worse, they were wrangling with questions of federal/state authority, weighing the realities of military logistics and perhaps talking past each other in the crisis.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/national/nationalspecial/09military.html?pagewanted=all

[krkaufman]

1. What an ignorant plan

Wouldn't the most basic plan -- especially one coordinated at the Federal level -- assume that a DISASTER would incapacitate local response personnel? The only variable, I would think, is changing the size/scope of your plan based on the distance from which help could be GUARANTEED to be available.

[krkaufman]

2. Is this snippet from the article even true? Thought this had been debunked

To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties.

True? Bush would have had to invoke the "Insurrection Act"? DID he invoke this act before sending in troops? US active-combat troops are in the Katrina states, now, so what was invoked?