Don't reinforce failures

There is a military axiom that states commanders do not reinforce failure. That means if an army is advancing on three fronts toward an objective and one attack begins to bog down while another meets great success, the commander will reinforce the successful attack while letting the other attacks founder if necessary. Only after the objective is secured, will the commander turn his attention to the other attacks.

Dems and Libs it seems would take an opposite approach. If a government program fails, they immediately call for more funding for the failed program. Watch what the findings are from the inevitable commission that looks into the Katrina disaster. They will call for more money for FEMA, New Orleans city emergency planning, LA state emergency planning all of which it seems, at least initially, failed to provide the necessary relief. Anyone who suggests that groups that actually help such as religious groups and private industry be brought into the equation will be looked upon as if they are crazy. What! How about separation of church and state? (By the way, has anyone seen Americans for Separation for Church and State, NARAL, moveon.org etc. helping out?) We can’t turn government funds over to rich corporations to do government work.

The sad fact is that government does precious little well. It seems to me that if Reps wanted to make a case against big government Katrina is the perfect example. Big Government, it seems, is no match for Mother Nature. Maybe we should think well outside the box about relief efforts for natural disasters. Maybe we need to stop simply reacting to disasters and start getting out in front of them.

• Pre-position stocks in the usual places – We know from experience generally where these things happen. It’s only a question of when.
• Identify and rotate National Guard units year round as disaster relief
• Designate military posts, state and national parks throughout the country as displacement/support sites
• Most important, contract disaster relief with Wal-Mart, UPS, FedEx, Home Depot, Lowes, Greyhound, McDonald’s and Kimberly Clark under military command and coordination and watch the relief flow free from federal red tape and political posturing and probably at a great savings to the tax payer. These are some of our finest companies with the know how to move goods and services.

Lex has not opined on the relief effort too much to date because just like everyone who has, I don’t know the facts - except one. The scope of the disaster far exceeded anyone’s expectation and even today is probably fully understood by only a few hundred people. People who were self reliant survived in good order. Those dependent on the government have not faired too well. As the Griffin puts it:

“Personal responsibilities have been slowly moving to become the responsibilities of the government. People…have turned over the responsibility of whether they live or die to government…oh yeah, they’re dying.” The Griffin sends.