It's Pretty to Think So
Capt. Renault: "What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?"
Blaine: "My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters."
Capt. Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert."
Blaine: "I was misinformed
--Casablanca (1942)
Like Bogart's Rick Blaine, they say GWB just got turned the wrong way. But they also say the best way out of a hole is to stop digging.
"The Florida National Guard is beginning to get $86 million in replacement equipment for vehicles and supplies left in Iraq and Afghanistan, but [Senator Bill Nelson, D-FL] said the resupply effort is 'a drop in the bucket (Nelson: Fla. Guard Replacement Equipment 'a Drop in the Bucket'.)"
Nelson questions whether the Florida Guard will be able to effectively respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters with only about 57 percent of its equipment.
But Gen. Douglas Burnett, the Guard's commander, said "I think that we have more than adequate equipment to respond to any conceivable disaster that we may have in the state and we've made sure Gov. (Charlie) Crist is aware of that."
Ranger understands this part clearly: The FLANG has only 57% of its equipment, and this is without considering dead-lined vehicles which would lower the operational number of vehicles available for disaster relief.
Now, would somebody explain how a large-scale disaster could be effectively dealt with, considering these equipment shortfalls?
Once again, words and reality do not mesh. Unless, of course, the N.G. authorize the guardsmen utilize their POV's.
Sounds like a plan
"The Florida National Guard is beginning to get $86 million in replacement equipment for vehicles and supplies left in Iraq and Afghanistan, but [Senator Bill Nelson, D-FL] said the resupply effort is 'a drop in the bucket (Nelson: Fla. Guard Replacement Equipment 'a Drop in the Bucket'.)"
Nelson questions whether the Florida Guard will be able to effectively respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters with only about 57 percent of its equipment.
But Gen. Douglas Burnett, the Guard's commander, said "I think that we have more than adequate equipment to respond to any conceivable disaster that we may have in the state and we've made sure Gov. (Charlie) Crist is aware of that."
Ranger understands this part clearly: The FLANG has only 57% of its equipment, and this is without considering dead-lined vehicles which would lower the operational number of vehicles available for disaster relief.
Now, would somebody explain how a large-scale disaster could be effectively dealt with, considering these equipment shortfalls?
Once again, words and reality do not mesh. Unless, of course, the N.G. authorize the guardsmen utilize their POV's.
Sounds like a plan
Labels: Florida National Guard depleted
posted by rangeragainstwar at 8:14 AM
2 Comments:
because of my willingness to play the harp and the pipes at the funerals of those who fall i have developed both a personal and a working relationship with the command sergeant major of the arizona national guard. last week he said that we have had to call on troops from indiana and south dakota for our border support operations because every operational helicopter is in afghanistan and our bradleys and strykers are in bagdhad, throw in that almost half of his troops are on their second year of full time duty (remember when the guard was 1 weekend a month and a couple weeks in the summer?) and you have the foundation for any natural disaster to become a catastrophe. we don't have hurricanes here, but come the monsoons of july and august there is an extreme danger of fire started by lightning (five years ago there was a fire that burned the combined area of new hampshire and maine). yet, they are blithely pretending that all is well and ready. they are also setting the spin to tell us that "september will be a snapshot, not a summary"
but above all, no matter what the facts on the ground report, remember. . .
it proves that the surge is working.
minstrel boy,
Thanks for sharing that insight.
Your rejoinder at the end is the penultimate summary of our leader's Fantasyland thinking.
I'd like to think all of these glaring contradictions are somehow covered By Mssr. Rumsfeld's koanic "unknown unknowns"--that somehow, it will come out that it was all part of some triumphantly winning scheme.
But somehow, I doubt it. these guys ain't alchemists.
Carry on. . .
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