U.S. Department Of Everything
The Armchair Generalist on post-Katrina federal reorganization:
What did surprise me was when GEN (ret) Barry McCaffrey, speaking on NBC News last night, agreed that the military should be the lead agency. He should know better. The military may be good at executing orders and making things happen, but they’re kinda busy right now and undermanned to conduct overseas military operations, homeland defense, and lead civil support. The quality of our military forces and focus on mission accomplishment should not be an excuse to overlook DHS’s failure to work efficiently.
What bothers me about making the military the lead for everything isn’t just posse comitatus, or resource allocation. It’s that every organization sucks at one point, and the military will too at the wrong time. Plus that “absolute power corrupts” concept. That’s why separation of powers is a good thing.
Boy I hope the political pendulum swings in time for this initiative to be ignored…
4 Responses to “U.S. Department Of Everything”
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September 26th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Amen and Amen! The solution is to fix the parts of DHS that need fixing. What I find very troubling is Rumsfeld advocating this and then at the same time he will turn around and say that the force is not “stressed”. Or worse yet, imagine 15 years from now, when a less than ethical leader decides to use military disaster relief as a reason to execute a narrow minded political agenda.
Every person who believes in civilian control of the military, a bedrock of our republic should be appalled by these suggestions.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:01 am
Gen McCaffrey has an ego the size of New York. He will do or say anything to get his picture in the paper or get close to whomever is President. As head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, he was primarily concerned with how to get face time with Pres. Clinton whenever he could. He is one of the armchair generals most responsible for second guessing every commander who has come after him.
Posse Comitatus should not be changed. If we need to put the military in charge as the lead organization, then invoke the Insurrection Act and piss on the governors and mayors who disagree. And we should need the military in charge only for biological, chemical, or nuclear attacks.
The airheads calling for military control of every disaster just want an elephant response, no matter how many natives get squashed underfoot. They need to engage brain before opening mouth. Good post, Chap.
Subsunk
September 27th, 2005 at 7:43 am
Chap,
I think there are so many people across the political spectrum who see Bush’s proposal as folly( — how many times are Subsunk and I gonna agree?), that it ain’t gonna happen. And my sense is that the Pentagon wants nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, what do you think about FEMA being reorginized to loook more like these folks:
http://www.thw.de/english/
“THW (Technisches Hilfswerk) is the Governmental disaster relief organizationof the Federal Republic of Germany. Its statutory tasks include the provision oftechnical assistance at home and humanitarian aid abroad.
Today, more than 40,000 volunteer technicians, engineers and specialists inother fields, as well as roughly 850 full-time employees, work for the federalTHW organisation. Together, they form the foundation of the qualified technicalassistance provided at home and abroad. The THW has 6,000 vehicles of varioustypes at its disposal.
The diversity of its units reflect THW’s range of operations. For example, thereare Technical Groups on the local level which focus on recovery, clearing,electricity supply, water damage/ pumps, management/ communication,bridge-building, infrastructure, water hazards, location, logistics, drinkingwater supply and oil damage and last but not least the special unit SEEBA.”
September 29th, 2005 at 8:31 am
John/Chap,
I think FEMA already is sort of organized like this. We just haven’t funded them and supplied them with the gear, the toys, the people. They just have the heads of the organization instead of the limbs. If you have time-sensitive contracting abilities, you can do anything — in America. And I kind of like the idea that the commercial companies get hired to do the work by FEMA instead of establishing a federal bureaucracy to handle it. I’ve seen the world from both sides now, and there is no question the federal government can do certain things, at great cost, immediately, if they are trained and organized towards it. But commercial companies can do it cheaper, faster and better if given the heads up, the opportunity and the prospect of profit for doing the same job.
John, We agree. I don’t think that is so wierd.
Subsunk