Bush Administration: "A Strange Paralysis"
Excerpts from the Newsweek report online here.
President Bush could have "federalized" the National Guard in an instant. That's what his father, President George H.W. Bush, did after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Back then, the Justice Department sent Robert Mueller, a jut-jawed ex-Marine (who is now FBI director), to take charge, showing, in effect, that the cavalry had arrived. FEMA's current head, Michael Brown, has appeared over his head and even a little clueless in news interviews.
Up to now, the Bush administration has not hesitated to sweep aside the opinions of lawyers on such matters as prisoners' rights. But after Katrina, a strange paralysis set in. For days, Bush's top advisers argued over legal niceties about who was in charge, according to three White House officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
While Washington debated, the situation in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast deteriorated.
4 days ago
3 comments:
I don't get it. What difference would it have made if Bush federalized the National Guard. Seems to me that would do little to change the way things are handled on the "front lines". And I was one of the local National Guardsman that was federalized at the LA Riots.
A different take on the blame game from a War Party blogger is at
http://thepoliticalinsight.blogspot.com/
On federalizing the Guard, wouldn't it allow Guard units from other states to be sent into the region? More than a third of the Louisiana Guard is in Iraq, along with their heavy equipment for operating in flood conditions.
Post a Comment