In 1992, federal and national guard troops were dispatched after Hurricane Andrew. Here are some stats (
link):
· 7,000 national guard troops
· 22,000 U.S Military Troops
Here are some Katrina stats from an AP story out today:
Bush said 4,000 active duty troops are already in the area and 7,000 more will arrive in the next 72 hours from the Army's 82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg, N.C., 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, and the Marines' 1st and 2nd Expeditionary forces from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Those troops will be in addition to some 21,000 National Guard troops already in the region.
Notice that the active duty troops referred to above are exactly half the number (11,000 vs 22,000) dispatched after Hurricane Andrew and that to even get 11,000 troops they had to pull from all over the country. These may actually even be national guard troops that have been called to active duty. Regardless, it is obvious that the National Guard is being expected to make up the difference because so many troops are somehow tied to Iraq.
The shortage of federal troops and the resulting dependency on various national guard units is a direct result of Iraq. I'm going to let that be my slapdown for the BS below from Bush crony Joseph Allbaugh.
But while the National Guard was called in quickly, there are already questions about whether the aid would be swifter if deployments to Iraq were not so intense: Mississippi has 3,800 Guard troops in Iraq, and Louisiana has about 3,000.
That leaves more than 60 percent of their Guard still in the state, which Joseph M. Allbaugh, one of Mr. Bush's closest friends and his first head of FEMA, said in an interview Wednesday should be plenty for the challenge ahead.
"If anyone is telling you that Iraq is getting in the way, well that's hogwash," Mr. Allbaugh said from Baton Rouge, where he was clinging to a bad cellphone connection while trying to help muster private industry to aid in the disaster relief.
A USA Today story by Dave Moniz, who is a veteran reporter on military affairs, points out that the problem isn't so much numbers of troops available as it is the shortage of the type of troops who are needed. Also a Lindsey Graham quote as a bonus (link):
The problem for Louisiana and Mississippi isn't how many troops are in Iraq, but rather the kind of soldiers who are there, said Dave McGinnis, a military analyst who specializes in National Guard personnel issues.
"It's combat brigades, which are the types of units you need in these situations," he said. Combat brigades - large, self-sustaining units of about 3,000 troops - have the vehicles, communications equipment and structure to cope best with a natural disaster. In Louisiana, communications and mobility are especially critical because most of New Orleans is without water, power and telephone service.
Among the Guard troops headed to the region from 13 states are truck drivers, communications experts and soldiers trained in purifying water, a critical need.
Fighting two wars and doing hurricane relief could cripple the part-time military and "have a ripple effect throughout the whole system," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Now let's get to the denial Moniz is slapping down with the above:
Despite the number of Guard troops on duty overseas, Lt. Gen. Steve Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said, "There's nothing I'm in want of" for relief work.
We all know that prior to Katrina money was diverted from bolstering the New Orleans levee system to the war in Iraq. And we all intuited that the number of troops and supplies tied up in Iraq had affected the reponse afterward. Now we have some facts to go with the intuition.
I have learned to expect brazen lies from Bush cronies, especially where Iraq is concerned. Let's not let them get away with these.