Failure At All Levels
The Associated Press has an article detailing the problems with getting that National Guard to Louisiana: National Guard Delay Likely to Be Examined
From the outside looking in, this has been a failure on multiple levels. Guard troops waiting for paperwork to be filed in Washington? Troops waiting for a phone call from the state of Louisiana to deploy? Blanco was apparently fearful of a political motive when Bush requested federal control of the situation. Add to this that New Orleans didn’t follow the city hurricane disaster plan, and you have a failure at every level of government.
Many people want to fault Bush, Blanco or Nagin (usually depending on their political affiliation). It will likely be some time before the paperwork is sorted out and the problems analyzed, but that’s what I think is really frustrating. If the bureaucracy is the reason for the delays, then steps need to be taken to remove it. We have FEMA and Homeland Security for a reason. Red tape isn’t it.
