posted September 28, 2005
In response to the mess which the Federal Government made in the response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush wants to gather more power and authority to himself and his successors.
While local and state officials in New Orleans and Louisiana state government certainly showed little brilliance in their performance, one must admit that they were hampered by 3,000 of their National Guard troops being off chasing imaginary WMD's and making Haliburton safe and profitable in Iraq. Their neighbor, Mississippi, suffered from having 4,000 of their National Guard troops off in Iraq.
Constitutionally and from a common sense point of view, New Orleans and the state of Louisiana should maintain their own levies, but Congress did appropriate the money, and it was diverted.
The lack of National Guard troops clearly hampered response to the flood. Due to local hiring policies, the New Orleans Police weren't up to the task.
President Bush now proposes to send in the active duty military, regardless of if the state governors request the active military or not. He is suggesting overturning the "Posse Comitatus Act," which prohibits the use of the "federal military" unless authorized by Congress.
First, it must be asked - why should the states be stripped of their national guard troops so that they have to be replaced be national troops? Doesn't it make more sense not do deploy national guard troops in the first place - leaving them at home to aid their neighbors in the event of an emergency? Wouldn't it make more sense if Congress were to pass a law barring the deployment of the National Guard to foreign adventures without a declaration of war? Or, even better, perhaps it would be best to go back to the old state militia system. The National Guard didn't exist until about the turn of the 20th century, when it was created to make it easier for the national government to hijack state resources (the "militia") for foreign adventures.
Looters and other criminals were given free reign early on. Subsequently, law enforcement, particularly the Feds, responded brilliantly by busting into the homes and businesses of those who stayed, committing no crimes except having remained to protect their homes and businesses (ignoring the evacuation order was no more than a misdemeanor), and seized their firearms. More than one story was reported about business owners being "lined up against the wall" with federal rifles pointed at them while their businesses were searched and firearms seized.
Posse Comitatus was passed both to prevent the abuse of the people by national troops, as happened during Reconstruction, and to make sure that national troops were available to defend the United States, rather than off chasing cattle rustlers and other common criminals. In these days, when the President is claiming the power to designate anybody a "terrorist" and lock him away forever without trial or access to counsel (and applying the old thumbscrews to obtain a "confession"), the possibility of national (active duty) troops searching our homes and playing at law enforcement, for which they are entirely unsuited, is particularly frightening. Imagine how a grandstanding president might designate "looters" as "terrorists". What chance would an innocent and falsely accused person have? Even those guilty deserve a trial by their peers.
FEMA turned away private aid and help. They turned away help from other states and municipalities. They used firemen for a public relations campaign rather than helping those who needed it. They kept privately owned airboats from rescuing those trapped in the flood. The list goes on and on.
The second worst response to the problems of Katrina is to further federalize "disaster management." Remember, the federal response was much of the disaster. The worst response is to further federalize "disaster management" using federal troops and overturning Posse Comitatus.
Rich Beecher
Chattanooga, TN
rbeecher@hotmail.com
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