Jackson Free Press

Remember Gov. Haley Barbour dressing down an NPR reporter for asking him here in Jackson if the Iraq War was hurting our National Guard's efforts to respond to Katrina? He declared that only national media would say such a thing, even as the National Guard spokesman right here in Jackson was saying just that. Now Congress's accountability arm, the nonpartisan GAO, is saying the same thing. A new report is out this week:

Army National Guard units are short of equipment at home partly because they have been told to leave such vital items as armored Humvees in Iraq for replacement troops, congressional investigators say.

Officials believe the National Guard's response to Hurricane Katrina "was more complicated because significant quantities of critical equipment such as satellite communications equipment, radios, trucks, helicopters and night vision goggles were deployed to Iraq," the report said.

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171894

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Also, read the transcript of President Bush's remarks from the Coast on Sept. 2. This part is very interesting in light of this GAO report. I also find intriguing the report where response in Mississippi at that point was "acceptable." By whose friggin' standards??? Q One of the things you hear is people saying a lot of resources are being devoted to Iraq, now this country needs them. And they're frustrated about that. What do you say to the people who say, there's too much money being spent on Iraq and it's time to bring them home? THE PRESIDENT: I just completely disagree. We've got a job to defend this country and the war on terror, and we've got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, and we'll do both. We've got plenty of resources to do both. Somebody questioned me the other day about -- do we have enough National Guard troops? Of course we do. These governors have got compacts with other states. If they need to call upon another state, the state will send Guard troops. And the people have just got to know, we've got what it takes to do more than one thing, and we'll secure our country from the terrorists, and we'll help rebuild this part of the world. Q This morning, when you said the results are not acceptable, what specifically were you talking about? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm talking about the fact that we don't have enough security in New Orleans yet. Results are acceptable here in Mississippi. You know, the results are acceptable in New Orleans when it comes to the hard work of the Coast Guard. But we need to get troops -- we had 1,200 troops arrive yesterday, I'm told. We're going to have 1,200 today, 1,200 more. These are troops especially trained for military police work. They need to get in there. They need to stabilize that situation. They need to make sure that the food and medicine that is in place is given to the people that need the food and medicine. I got a good report today about food and medicine getting to people that weren't getting it, but we'll find out if it's true when we get to New Orleans. You know, this is a huge task that we're dealing with. And our jobs, as people in positions of responsibility, is not to be satisfied until the job is done as good as it can possibly be done. And that's what I was referring to. I'm certainly not denigrating the efforts of anybody. But the results can be better in New Orleans. And I intend to work with the folks to make it better. And again, in Mississippi, we've got a different situation. We've got a Guard that is in place, activated. Haley made some clear rules and is following through on them. But the task, in both places, the tasks are enormous. And it's going to take a while. This is -- our fellow citizens must understand that we're talking years. Now, we're not talking years to get people rescued, we're talking days. And we're not talking years to get infrastructure back up here. We're talking weeks to get the electricity running.

Author

ladd

Date

2005-10-22T16:07:57-06:00

ID

171895

Comment

Apropros: "You know I talked to Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi yesterday because some people were saying, 'Well, if you hadn't sent your National Guard to Iraq, we here in Mississippi would be better off.' He told me 'I've been out in the field every single day, hour, for four days and no one, not one single mention of the word Iraq.' Now where does that come from? Where does that story come from if the governor is not picking up one word about it? I don't know. I can use my imagination.î ñFormer President George Bush, interview with CNNís Larry King, Sept. 5, 2005

Author

ladd

Date

2005-10-23T12:09:13-06:00