Sue wrote:
I snipped the above bull ****


IIRC the US sent military ships to the tsunami area.
Sue


Sue the ships got diverted and not sent. They were in the area, (making
a port of call in Hong Kong on their way to the Persian gulf if I
remember correctly. The left Hong Kong the day after the Tsunami hit
and steaming at best possible speed (around 25 knots) at 600 nautical
miles a day it took them 2 and a half days to get into the area.

The stores ship anchored at Guam left a day or so later but because of
its slower speed (16 knots) and a longer way to go it made it in about a
week. These ships were in the area relatively speaking and had crews
and stores on board so the could leave quickly. (well the ship in Guam
had to bunker up (load fuel) and put stores (food, water, mainly) and
then leave.

I don't know were people get this idea that response is going to be
instantaneous. Even in the active military it takes 48 hours to get a
movement under way.

You try and deploy the Guard (civilians with military training and
civilian jobs, families, sick kids, elderly grand parents, school
teachers trying to get ready for the new school year, key members on
vacation, (it was only a week to labor day, and you can take a week off
and get 12 days out of it), and a dozen other reasons for not being able
to move out)

Four days is about what I would have expected for a out of state guard
unit to get to the New Orleans area.

What makes me angry is these no brain arm chair experts that have never
been in this kind of a situation think that if they were president they
would just snap their fingers and it would all be done.

They just don't know it doesn't work that way.



besides , it makes political sense to wait a while , let a few more die
off , then there is less effort to be expended rescuing folk , cos there
is less to rescue AND , the folk that are rescued , they will love the
govt cos they seen what it can be like without them




--
There are in fact two things, Science and opinion,
the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Hippocrates
467-377 B.C.