On the Proper Role of the US Military In a Time of National Emergency. [View All]

[Hillgiant]

Lately there have been several attempts, with varying success, to institute a formalized role for the US military in times of national emergency. Most common suggestions include security and intelligence roles. Unfortunately, our military is ill suited for executing these sorts of missions in a domestic environment. Lets call a spade, a spade: The military's primary mission is to confront other militaries, overcome those militaries, and do so with a minimum loss of life for our soldiers / sailors / air(wo)men.

There are two elements of the US military that is very well suited to confronting natural (an presumably man-made) disasters. Logistics and communication.

Napoleon said, "An army marches on its stomach." He was not commenting on the ponderous pace of infantry, rather he meant that moving troops requires incredible amounts of food and fodder. Until Rumsfeild decided that tax dollars belonged in Haliburton's pockets instead of soldier's, the US Army was one of the premier logistical organizations on the planet. It needed to be. The Army could not count on there being supplies, roads to bring them in on, buildings to store them in, people to move them, fuel for their equipment, security for the people, and on, and on, and on. Therefore, the Army had to be capable of doing all these things themselves.

An extension of providing your own logistics is providing stable communication. Without good communication, you cannot maintain command and control. Without command and control, you cannot execute the mission (and, most likely, your troops will die).


Now. Looking back at the government's response to Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, which two things were in most dire need? Supplies and knowing where they were needed most. Logistics and communication. The military would not need to take complete control of the situation. Rather respond to requests and requirements of local officials. "Gee, I have not heard from the New Orleans FEMA office all damn day. Colonel, set up a coms link to NOLA." or "Holy cow, Flyspeck, MS has been wiped off the map. Colonel, please send X,000 gallons of water, Y cased of MREs, and portable shelter for about Z people. Oh, and they are probably out of ice too, send a couple trucks as well. When we find the buses, we will move those poor sods to someplace a little more permanent."

Understand that this would not be a blank check. Nor would it absolve the local officials of responsibility of distributing the aid. Also, the comment about the buses is to prevent some overzealous Sargent from loading people onto transports at gunpoint.

Sadly, most of the sorts of capability I am talking about have been outsourced. What a cost saver that has turned out to be. Instead of Pvt. Sack driving a truck for $35k/year, we have Joe Contractor doing it for $35k/mo. Add in Haliburton's profit margin, the corruption, and the graft..... Gee, ain't corporate efficiency so much better than government efficiency?