As so often happens, the truth, that it's sheer random luck we haven't been hit & hit hard, is not going to be as widely circulated as the legend. It seems as if the proverbial "Brownie" might as well have been running Defense as well as FEMA these last few yrs.
[A] stinging 400-page independent commission report ... concluded the military isn't ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and that National Guard forces don't have the equipment or training they need for the job.Gosh, once again the Pentagon is fighting the last century's wars w/ high-dollar contracts for useless hardware given to military-industrial corporations that donate to the Republican Party, rather than train & equip troops. That's only been happening since we became vaguely aware of events in the larger world, around the time JFK was murdered. No surprise there. Any serious changes to be made? Not by SecDef Gates.
The commission's report included 95 recommendations. But Gates did not order many of those changes urged by the commission to give National Guard and Reserve troops better access to promotions, military training and education programs and other benefits. Instead, in most cases he ordered leaders in the Defense Department and the military services to review their programs to determine whether changes are needed.So we have a commission, followed by a "program review," followed by little or no action on any recommendations, and then sweet oblivion. Perhaps just as well. We're not at all enthusiastic about this:
Arnold L. Punaro, who was chairman of the commission, welcomed Gates' recommendations Monday, saying that improving the military's role in homeland defense and enhancing the clout of the reserves "represent a historic break with the past."We don't like the idea of the military becoming more involved w/ homeland defense, this not being a banana republic.
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