How come they could get Marines to the Philippines in a day

[Paranoid Pessimist]

but they couldn't get some troops to maintain order and help out that stadium in New Orleans when all the poor people were stuck there?

[Ready4Change]

1. Beware.

I sense a trap lurking in that very question.

I believe the answer is that the bureaucracy of Homeland Security slowed response to Katrina.

But I think some might use this question as an excuse to deploy US troops on US soil. We don't want to go there.

[DeltaLady]

13. This is a point I've been making (or trying to) over and over.

Governor Blanco is blamed for needless deaths because she would not relinquish state sovereignty when requested to do so by **sh. Rove requested "martial law or as close as you can get."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120400963.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-cobble/karl-rove-martial-law_b_11728.html

It is now reasonable to ask WHY Rove felt it was necessary to federalize the rescue.

There is only one logical answer; it was a blatant attempt to try an experiment in martial law. (They probably wanted to see how their internment camps would function as well.)

Had Blanco gone for their blackmail, yes "help" would have arrived sooner, but I believe there would have been far more fatalities. People "looting" for food and water would likely have been shot. That in turn would have brought out the guns of New Orleans, who would not have shot in the air but would have shot back. It would have truly resembled a city in Iraq, not a flooded american city, desperate and begging for help, holding to life by a thread.

The saddest part of all is that many Louisianians and even New Orleanians think Blanco should be impeached; after all, their logic reads that people would have been helped sooner had she capitulated to **sh and his minions. Impeached??? She is the best governor this state has ever seen by my reckoning. She stood by her state and it's sovereign rights, not trusting the neocons to "do the right thing." I think her instincts were 100% dead on.

[annabanana]

15. He is looking for any excuse...

He has no problems blackmailing local leaders to get "commander-in-chief" control of vast areas of civilian populations...

(I believe that other Presidents have pushed for this as well - It's something that all citizens have to be educated to watch out for. . another job for good public education)

[cynatnite]

2. Nominated because everyone should be asking this n/t

[BattyDem]

3. My mother and I asked that very same question when we saw the news!

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

[Bluebear]

4. Because that hurricane worked out VERY WELL for people.

[Dr.Phool]

5. Oh Gawd!! Stop it!!! It's Beastly Babs!!!!

AKA, The Quaker Oats Guy.

[CottonBear]

7. Your post and pictures made me cry.

:cry:

[Canuckistanian]

6. Good Thought Experiment

What's better? No troops at all or many many troops in the future?
There doesn't seem to be a middle ground anymore.

[RazzleDazzle]

8. One Navy ship sat outside NO -- wasn't given okay to come ashore

That was one which had followed Katrina in, so to speak. Sat there for days while the crew twiddled their thumbs. IIRC, it was a hospital ship and had the ability to convert sea water.

There were many, many, many instances of help being actively turned away. As with everything about the Bush adminsitration, NONE OF THIS WAS ACCIDENTAL, nor sheer incompetence. (Well, okay, Brownie was incompetent -- but he was also set up by people who were NOT incompetent.)

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

9. There might be oil in them dar hills .

[REP]

10. Aren't There US Military Bases in the Philippines?

I know Subic and Clark are closed, but aren't there other US bases there?

[caligirl]

11. Cubi point and Clark are no longer. That Helo squadron is HMM 262

my hubby's old squadron the Flying Tigers he flew with them when it was home based in Hawaii before 1990. Cubi closed and 262 went to Okinawa years ago. Don't know about the navy ships.

[REP]

12. Clark Was Nearly Wiped Out By A Volcano and Closed; Subic Lost Lease

but I can't believe the US would completely pull out, but those are the only two bases I can recall from being in the news!

[caligirl]

18. I spent a lot of my childhood living at Clark. Air Force brat here.

[DemonGoddess]

14. I was plenty mad when I saw that on the news too

Here we STILL have people in desperate need of help after a huge natural disaster, and they still can't get the help they need. What the hell were they THINKING??? Take care of our citizens first, will ya? It's not that I object to humanitarian responses, I sure don't. It's just that it's an outrage that when OUR people were in such dire straits after the hurricane, our own govt sat with their collective thumbs up their asses.

[progressoid]

16. Ummm...

Because they weren't just poor. They were Black and Democrats as well. Why bother?

:sarcasm:

[genie_weenie]

17. Well, MEUs float around the oceans for this sort of thing

A MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) often qualified as SOC (Special Operations Capable) are out to sea for these sort of missions. Lately, of course CINC (Chief Idiot N Charge) has been destroying the capabilites of MEUs by forcing them to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, this is due to our overstrecthed troops.

This op is being lead by Marines, diverted from joint military exercises elsewhere in the Philippines. These were most likely a MEU.

As for NO, well most of the 4th MARDIV (Reservists) whose HQ is New Orleans are deployed to Camp Lemonier, which the 4th MARDIV assumed control of bak on 2004, due to the Active Duty Marines having to suck down deployment after deployment to Iraq and requirements like the above mentioned MEUs.

As for the Louisana National Guard, have they also deployed to Iraq?