We have learned from the Katrina experience. Shame on us if we didn't. But for anyone to pretend that we have all the answers, while still involved in the initial response, would be both foolish and premature.
This may well have been a very painful disclosure of a gap in our capability that we must now correct to deal with not only natural disasters, but with terrorist attacks that may be even larger in scope.
The role of the military within domestic American society, both by law and by history, has been carefully constrained, and there is nothing in our strategy that would move away from that historic principle.
[The Department of Defense, taking lessons from Katrina, intends to send surveillance aircraft soon after Rita strikes land to] determine the magnitude of the relief required and, secondly, where it would be required, ... We want to ensure as a matter of policy we have better eyes on target.
We anticipate providing from the Department of Defense a 500-bed mobile hospital. That will be deployed in the New Orleans area.
We all have different radios. We all use different frequencies. Yet we all must be able to talk to each other.
The word is 'caution. We have to look at a mission and decide if a civilian capability is available and appropriate.
We want to do more than watch TV. . . . We want to ensure as a matter of policy we have better eyes on target.
Katrina taught us we can't rely on cable news broadcasts and early written reports to give an accurate assessment of the loss.
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