That could be the headline if President Bush gets his way. At a press conference yesterday, he suggested the idea of using the military to quarantine an area where the 'bird flu' outbreak was, should one occur. Nothing like a little panic-inducing statement from the President to send people into a tizzy!
First, we hate to bring this up but we thought Republicans were for 'limited government' and 'state's rights' not Federal intervention at every turn. But, Mr. Bush is advocating taking more and more authority away from those pesky local and state governments. His delusion the Feds can do anything better than...well, anybody, is amazing.
Sure, the possibility of a pandemic of the avian flu is a little doomsday'ish in its possible scenarious. Sure, we need to have some sort of action plan. But the day the United States Military comes and shuts down the Austin airport, closed and roadblocked all roads out of the city and enforces a curfew while riding around in Humvees and machine guns is the day we are going to have serious problem around here. I'm just sayin' is all.
What disturbs me more is not Bush's tendency to federalize the response, but his tendency to militarize the response.
Yeah, I'm with Jeb.
What disturbs me even more is the complete cluelessness involved in believing that you can contain an entire city under military quarantine. Cities haven't been self-contained environments in a very long time now, and the sheer scope is staggering. Consider how long it took for the military to even reach some of the outlying areas of New Orleans, much less search them or attempt to control a perimeter against people who believe they'll die if they stay.
Lurker, don't you think that's his point? If he didn't get to New Orleans fast enough, he's now planning to get to cities that just might have a disaster in the future and promise to lock them down. I know you love him, but spin is spin. But he can't spin New Orleans. It's over. He blew it.
Response to the hurricanes is primarily about 3 things - establishing and maintaining supply lines, search and rescue, and assessing and triaging infrastructure. These are clearly sweet spots for the military, regardless of your political affiliation. The military should certainly be an option, which PD apparently wants to scare about in the post. No I'm not in the military.
More than enough blame to go around on New Orleans. If LA had been able to coordinate a request for a deteriorating situation earlier things would have gone much better. But a leader finds a way to trascend and Bush did not - he misses great opportunity to lead despite the bureacracy and people died because of it.
Lurker, that's why we have the National Guard (a.k.a. a "well regulated militia"). Bush is talking about federalizing the response and imposing military law. That would be . . . different. And would require a repeal of the Posse Comitas Act. Maybe we could have regular Army patroling the Mexican border as well, knocking off a 16 year old goat herder or two.
It's enough to make me ck the back of Bush's head for a 666 tattoo.
beat the president when the feds don't act fast enough then beat him when he talks about how to have the feds act faster. It's a fun game for the whole family!