I half-heartedly suggested this, but it looks like they might actually do it:
The military’s Northern Command is developing a proposal to organize a specially trained and equipped active-duty force that could respond quickly to assist relief efforts in the event of overwhelming natural disasters, like major hurricanes, floods or earthquakes.
The proposal, one of the first results from the military’s study of shortcomings in the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina, could resolve significant stumbling blocks to the deployment of active-duty forces into a disaster area on American soil…
In the first days after Hurricane Katrina passed and the levees broke in New Orleans, flooding the city, the Democratic governor of Louisiana and White House officials squabbled over whether the federal government should take command of the faltering relief effort.
Active-duty troops may conduct relief operations without the federal government being in charge, but the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits active-duty forces from conducting law enforcement missions on American soil.
Pentagon and military officials say that federal troops could not have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans without breaking the Posse Comitatus law.
That would not be a problem with the standby force as long as it was kept to logistical and relief operations and the mission, in particular law-enforcement duties, remained with the National Guard reporting to the state governors.
The federal, state and local authorities would first agree, in advance, on what kind of event would lead to the sending of active-duty forces into a state. The criteria might include predictions of hurricane severity, the level of damage from an earthquake or casualty figures. Admiral Keating said that could help eliminate politics from the calculation.
The upside of this is that when Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith are reporting unsubstantiated rumors making the problem worse, we might be able to shoot them.
Another Jeff
Don’t forget Geraldo.
nycmoderate
You mean we can’t shoot them anyway, just for being so bloody annoying?
BoDiddly
I think this type of “advance directive” planning is the proper balance between the two bad extremes. The first, of course, is the chance of a state not sufficiently anticipating a need in a timely fashion, then not properly requesting aid from the military for what is actually needed. The second problem would be deployment not authorized by the states, that could be abused by the federal government to wrest even more sovereignty away from the states. This should cover both problems sufficiently–a plan could be put in place that would be “automatically” implemented at a federal level, while the states, comfortable that the federal agreement would be carried out, could turn more attention to evacuation and other “last minute” preparations (provided, of course that there exists a warning period, as in a hurricane).
Sort-of one of those things that fit into the “why didn’t we think of this before” categories, but then again, a minor problem in a small crisis becomes a major problem in a monumental crisis, and we’ve been blessed/cursed with very few crises of this magnitude in our nation’s history. Blessed, for obvious reasons, but cursed in that we haven’t been forced to stay prepared.
ppGaz
You can turn them off. The great thing about MSM is that it’s self-selected.
jobiuspublius
Duh! What took them so long to figure this out? What else have they had on their minds all these years? Northern Command is supposed to concern itself with US operations, right?
Go Coast Guard! Next time someone calls them puddle pirates, I’ll have to have a chat with the fool.
jobiuspublius
BTW, IIRC, OT, but, china uses, or used to use, it’s army for labor; stuff like farming and road building.
p.lukasiak
This is (or should be) unnecessary, but is the only real solution at hand when state disaster planning relies on their National Guard, and the governors can no longer rely on those soldiers to be available because they are fighting a war on the other side of the world….
The upside is that we will be training active duty military units in skills necessary for “peace keeping” activities…. the downside is that, because of their peace-keeping expertise, the troops with this training will likely wind up getting deployed to places like Iraq, leaving a big gap in the disaster planning again….
too true
Duh! What took them so long to figure this out? What else have they had on their minds all these years? Northern Command is supposed to concern itself with US operations, right?
Might want to get your facts clear before you snipe. Northern Command is a new organization. You can thank Rumsfeld for its creation since he pushed for it.
As far as ‘we can shoot them’ – you signing up John? Or served and are in the reserves?
Steve S
LOL! When you’re bashing Fox News, it proves the problem wasn’t liberal media but rather you don’t want to hear the truth.
You should change the name of this site to Ostrich-Juice.
Kimmitt
Egad, good sense.
jobiuspublius
All I did was ask questions. Gee, so sensitive. So, I can thank Rummy for not being prepared for Katrina? Can I thank Rummy for deploying National Guard over seas rather putting them to better use here and keeping active duty military here rather than sending them over seas? What else can I thank Rummy for?
I wonder who will provide security for all those peace keepers. I wonder if this will be used as a recruitment trap. Rummies military has no problem with volunteering personnel for new MOSs, with little to no training no less. I wonder if this is an attepmt to keep Rummies Northern Command operating while waiting for some other purpose.
I wonder if there are other alternatives.
madrino
Next war, follow the Powell doctrine like Shinseki recommended regarding military requirements and preparation, just as H. W. Bush did in Gulf I, and leave the national guard at home who know the area and keep the material they need with them. Iraq is without a doubt the most incompentently planed and executed invasion in the history of the US on this scale. Military “leadership” is little more than being a sycophant to the BushCo idealogues in this fiasco.
madrino
Next war, follow the Powell doctrine like Shinseki recommended regarding military requirements and preparation, just as H. W. Bush did in Gulf I, and leave the national guard at home who know the area and keep the material they need with them. Iraq is without a doubt the most incompentently planed and executed invasion in the history of the US on this scale. Military “leadership” have been little more than a group of sycophants with more stars and bars than brains for the BushCo idealogues in this fiasco.
BoDiddly
You know, it really doesn’t matter how many National Guard troops are available if the Governor of their state doesn’t go through the preparatory moves to mobilize them.
In Mississippi, we’ve a lot of units overseas, but we had a more than adequate force force on the ground before daybreak when Katrina made landfall. As soon as the winds died down, they headed out from Camp Shelby, clearing the highway as they went.
It’s called “local leadership.” Louisiana really should look into it.
Oops, I forgot–bad thing to smoke around the strawmen…