Been watching the news and have already started to hear people claim that the delay in relief is Bush's fault and that the entire military should be mobilized immediately to assist. The question though is what role should the military take in the relief effort?
Obviously everyone wants whatever steps that can be taken to be taken immediately but what more can be done. Already there are at least 20,000 National Guard members, the medical ship Comfort, 4 Amphib ships, thousands of police officers / medical personnel / firefighters either on scene or will be on scene soon. So what does that give us? I would think that the NG will provide the majority of boots on the ground while the Active Duty military provides medical personnel and helicopters and other transoportation units. What exactly would an increase of boots on the ground provide? Furthermore, there are laws that limit the ability of the national military to operate in the CONUS so how do those factor in with aviation units as compared to ground units?
How does looting and rioting help the situation at all? How does hyjacking relief trucks make things better? The only thing that see it causing is exactly what appears to be happening, vital personnel are being diverted from life saving to security operations. Why should rescue personnel have to risk their lives to do their job? Is it time to actually declare martial law? Is it going too far to start shooting looters?
Obviously everyone wants whatever steps that can be taken to be taken immediately but what more can be done. Already there are at least 20,000 National Guard members, the medical ship Comfort, 4 Amphib ships, thousands of police officers / medical personnel / firefighters either on scene or will be on scene soon. So what does that give us? I would think that the NG will provide the majority of boots on the ground while the Active Duty military provides medical personnel and helicopters and other transoportation units. What exactly would an increase of boots on the ground provide? Furthermore, there are laws that limit the ability of the national military to operate in the CONUS so how do those factor in with aviation units as compared to ground units?
How does looting and rioting help the situation at all? How does hyjacking relief trucks make things better? The only thing that see it causing is exactly what appears to be happening, vital personnel are being diverted from life saving to security operations. Why should rescue personnel have to risk their lives to do their job? Is it time to actually declare martial law? Is it going too far to start shooting looters?
