Criticism of Government Response To Hurricane Katrina - U.S. National Guard

U.S. National Guard

Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) requested, via a letter to the U.S. National Guard Bureau on August 30, additional National Guard troops from other states to supplement the Louisiana National Guard, but approval did not occur until September 1. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had offered assistance to Blanco two days before the storm hit, but could not send his troops until approval came from the National Guard Bureau. Blanco later acknowledged that she should have called for more troops sooner, and that she should have activated a compact with other states that would have allowed her to bypass the requirement to route the request through the National Guard Bureau.

Some 40% of Louisiana's National Guard was deployed to Iraq at the time, and critics claim that use of the National Guard to boost troop numbers in Iraq left them unready to handle disasters at home.

Read more about this topic:  Criticism Of Government Response To Hurricane Katrina

Famous quotes containing the words national and/or guard:

    America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the political capital, and the financial hub.
    C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)

    Although adults have a role to play in teaching social skills to children, it is often best that they play it unobtrusively. In particular, adults must guard against embarrassing unskilled children by correcting them too publicly and against labeling children as shy in ways that may lead the children to see themselves in just that way.
    Zick Rubin (20th century)