The million dollar question on a lot of people's minds is whether or not our current occupation in Iraq (and the money and people appropriated to that region) is impeding our ability to take care of issues at home: namely infrastructure, and response to natural disasters.

Interesting article was written recently about this:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9148526/site/newsweek/page/2/

A small excerpt:

"In Louisiana, more than a quarter of the state’s National Guard troops are currently in Iraq—a stat that had local officials concerned considering the role the guard typically plays in helping the state weather such storms."


Also, was Bush wrong for taking off so much time? He has reportedly been on "working vacations" for more than 30% of his time in office. I join the majority of Americans who are repeatedly discouraged by and disgruntled with our sitting president.

 

This is a hard one for me to assess. He doesn't have a crystal ball to see if Katrina, the worst hurricane to hit the country in decades is in route. Yet some think we shouldn't have gone to Iraq in the first place so the LA NG should been there already. Bush has certainly seen his share of ****, hasn't he? Even Hurricane Andrew was dealt with by another Bush.

Here's my take... As a leader, I think in poor taste and judgement for the President to be on working vacation during this time. If I were President I would be on one of those Blackhawks. I'd be there somehow without a doubt. As for him trying to make matters better he has addressed the country regarding the situation and how they need money, and he has mustered every military unit in the area in order to take the LA NG/Reserves place. Any unit with choppers (Marines/Navy, Army, AF) and full tanks of fuel are conducting a Coast Guard-type mission with crew chiefs that have probably only read about such maneuvers in FM’s. He also has LA guard and reserve components coming back to the disaster from Iraq. They'll come home after 11months of service in Iraq, kiss their families and put on their game faces. It's what they do....

And i just read he's asking President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims.

 

Yes, he has. And unfortunately has also taken most the blame for it.


Yes he has. To aid the south just like they did the Tsunami. They're nearly billionaires. I don't think it's too much for them to help out. Especially being former Presidents. Plus one's a Dem and one's a Rep. I think that will help as well.

 

Majority says who? Are you following the same accurate polls that predicted the election outcome? I still haven't taken part in any of those "scientific" surveys.

I think the same people who voted for Bush still have his back. That guy has had some serious hurdles in his presidency, and he's done a good job in my opinion, and in the opinion of the majority (according to my latest finger in the air poll, which happens to be most accurate).

 

...last time we did an 'approval pole' in THIS forum, I believe Bush had less than 50%...I think you have your finger up in the wrong place Helladumb...

 

Yes because a forum poll in a subaru forum is sooooo scientific

 

And that is why we call you helladumb. You certainly have low expectations of a president:

- failed, expensive war
- tax breaks for the super wealthy
- worst environmental record of any sitting president
- highest deficit of any sitting president

But hey, he is a great mountain bike rider and can do 100 sit-ups! Go Bush, Go!!

 

...

 

Not sure what you mean. He sure has done well with the mess left by Clinton.

Expensive yes, failed no. Who is supposed to secure our oil rights.. you?

You mean the ones that are making our economy boom again? It worked by all accounts but the irrelevant ones

Oh, do you mean the ones that prevented additional oil refineries from being built, or the ones that have made us increasingly dependent on foreign oil drilling? I assume it's ok if we pollute elsewhere, right?

So our de-balled military and post dot-com economy didn't need the money generated by the war on terror? If we stopped all the rediculous social services we could trim the deficit drastically. Where do you want to trim?

Does this mean you are overwheight? Ab-envy?

 

Our economy's booming? News to me...

 

And how long will you keep blaming Clinton? Clinton was in office for 8 years. If he was so inept, the economy would have fallen during his presidency.


So you admit we waged a pre-emptive strike against a sovereign country to secure natural resources for our own country?

Im glad you arent our Sec of State otherwise we would be in WWIII real quick


W's tax breaks are making our economy boom?? You must be hellarich to be getting his breaks


This goes way beyond the Arctic. His administration's environmental practices are unquestionably dubious.


Wait, I thought the improved economy was from the tax breaks? And money generated by war on terror? Who benefits from that? I can name them with a few fingers: Halliburton, DOW, and my middle finger.


Totally. But our president can kick your president's a$$

 

The Un-Missing National Guard
The Louisiana Army National Guard consists of about 11,500 members in six troop units. The largest units are 256th Infantry Brigade consisting of two mechanized infantry, an armor, an artillery and an engineer battalion and the 225th Engineer Group.
Parenthetically, having nothing at all to do with this story other than my never ending campaign to impart military trivia upon unwitting readers, the 256th Infantry Brigade is somewhat infamous within the Army for the large scale mutiny it carried out while training to deploy to the Gulf War over having to work weekends.

The issue here are twofold: were the troops in Iraq indispensable or even necessary to respond to Katrina and was the equipment those troops took with them indispensable or necessary to respond to Katrina.

The troops.

As of August 31 there were 3,748 Louisiana Army National Guardsmen and Army Reservists and 193 Air Guardsmen and Reservists on active duty throughout the world. The lion’s share of them, about 3,500, are with the 256th Infantry Brigade in Iraq. This leaves some 8,000 Guardsmen and an unknown number of Army Reservists available for disaster relief. The skill sets in those units, with the exception of the single combat engineer battalion, have no particular utility in disaster relief. So the argument that the absence of the 450 men of the 1088th Engineer Battalion were somehow critical to response to this disaster, or that the 3,500 troops missing could not be more than adequately replaced by other troops from neighboring states is just not true.

The equipment.

So did the equipment the 256th Infantry Brigade take with it to Iraq, equipment provide some unique immediate response capability that could have mitigated the damage from Katrina?

Arguably someone could make the case that the M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley, and M109 Paladin howitzers belonging to the infantry, armor, and artillery battalions could have been filled with QUIKRETE® and pushed into the break in the levee. Absent this scenario, it seems ridiculous on its face to object to the deployment of this equipment to Iraq.

The brigade’s engineer battalion, the 1088th Engineer Battalion, is in Iraq with its parent unit. It is a combat engineer battalion. Combat engineer battalions don’t have a lot of heavy equipment. Each of the three lettered companies would have six M-9 Armored Combat Earthmovers (ACE). The ACE is much more useful for combat than disaster relief. The idea that 18 armored bulldozers would have been of critical assistance, unless they were dumped in the levee break on top of the tanks and personnel carriers in nothing short of ludicrous

On the other hand, the unit left behind, the 225th Engineer Group, (Combat), and its four organic Engineer Battalions (Combat)(Heavy), is well suited for disaster relief. Army Field Manual 5-116 lays out their missions and capabilities:

HQ, ENGINEER GROUP (COMBAT)
This group HQ is normally assigned to a corps when the composition of the subordinate battalions is predominately combat-oriented and attached to an engineer brigade. At EAC, this group HQ may have a greater construction orientation; yet it brings valuable combat expertise to the EAC's reinforcing role in areas with forward-placed EWLs or special project zones. It—

--Commands assigned and attached units and coordinates engineer activities.

--Plans, supervises, and coordinates activities of assigned and attached engineer units engaged in M/CM/S and general-engineering functions.

--Supervises engineer units preparing and maintaining combat routes and MSRs in the TO (to include the ingress and egress, battle positions, and river-crossing sites) and repairing bridges, fords, and culverts.

--Plans and supervises engineer reconnaissance.

--Conducts planning for and supervises assigned and attached engineer units performing general-engineering tasks, such as constructing and repairing landing strips, heliports, port facilities, and railroads.

--Does not have a design management section.

ENGINEER BATTALION (COMBAT) (HEAVY)

The battalion is normally assigned to an engineer group, a brigade, a corps, or a joint or combined task force (TF). It—

--Increases the combat effectiveness of the division, corps, and theater Army's forces by accomplishing general-engineering and M/CM/S tasks.

--Constructs, repairs, and maintains the MSRs, landing strips, buildings, structures, and utilities.

--Performs rear-area security operations, when required.

At EAC, this unit may work forward of the traditional corps rear boundaries, as well as the operational engineer missions with EWLs throughout the theater. The battalion—

--Constructs, rehabilitates, repairs, maintains, and modifies landing strips, airfields, CPs,

--MSRs, supply installations, buildings, structures, and bridges.

--Repairs and reconstructs (on a limited basis) railroads and sewage and water facilities.

--Provides field-engineering assistance and support to divisional engineers preparing protective positions.

--Conducts engineer reconnaissance.

--Creates obstacles to degrade enemy mobility in rear areas.

--Clears obstacles as part of an area-clearance operation, not as part of an assault-breaching operation.

--Performs rear-area operations, to include infantry combat missions, within the limitations of organic weapons and equipment.

--Supervises contractual construction, skilled construction labor, and unskilled indigenous personnel.

--Conducts area-damage clearance/restoration operations.

--Provides religious support to assigned and attached units.

In fact, the 225th Engineer Group is touted by the Louisiana National Guard as being the largest engineering group in the reserve components.
Viewed from any position the idea that a very small number of troops could in anyway have had an impact on the aftermath of Katrina is laughable. It is doubly laughable because it ignores the 10,000+ out of state National Guardsmen who began arriving in Louisiana on Wednesday and the thousands of out-of-state police officers who have also been loaned to Louisiana, a team from Loudoun County, Virginia is departing as I write this.

This whole story line is nothing more or less than a dishonest attack perpetrated by the left in their concerted effort to make political points on the backs of the dead and homeless. Attacks that have moved me squarely in line with Thomas’ position on this subject.

So while we can expect the left and their fellow travelers in the press to throw this bit of piffle about we should not under any circumstances take it seriously of allow it to go unanswered.

 

Thanks for the post. What is the source?

I wanted to contend one paragraph in the writer's argument:

First, this aspect of the writer's argument is seriously flawed. Who knows how much of an affect their abscence would have? Maybe the boys back home are overworked as they need to pick up more duties with more people gone.

Secondly, what states do you suppose these troops could come in from. The entire Gulf Coast region was hit. Few neighboring states can come in with substantial numbers.

Edit: I just read through that again in detail. Good info on the engineering capabilities of that unit

 

Jamie McIntyre of CNN debunked this myth already, noting that 65% of the LA Guard was in the state and available to deploy (60% in MS, 74% in AL and 77% in FL). Many have noted, that a Mech Brigade is of limited use in terms of equipment anyway. Given that the number of troops mobilized exceeds the entire strength of the LA Guard, the fact that troops are in Iraq (whose tour is ending in days)is not much of a hindrance. Additionally, they will be available when they return. Already Guard members from all over the region are deploying, especially Arkansas (tying up traffic in Memphis as they moved through town). Rather than join the chorus of people trying to assign blame, I would remind all that the reasons that make it hard to get people out of NOLA, make it hard to get into the city. Lack of available national guard troops is simply not an issue.

 

Source:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...my/arng-la.htm