The never ending failures and lies of George Bush after all this time, and listening to all the crap about how safe we are, turns out to be yet another lie. What a freaking shock that BushCo and the GOP would have us believe that we are safe and can protect ourselves from a homeland attack. Here’s the reality. The Pentagon is not prepared to respond to a catastrophic chemical, biological or nuclear attack within the United States, placing Americans at risk. This should shut down the people living under a rock, but won’t, who have bought into Bush and his “we are safer nowâ€� crap.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is not prepared to respond to a catastrophic chemical, biological or nuclear attack within the United States, placing Americans at risk, an independent panel reported to Congress on Thursday.
While the Defense Department conducts exhaustive planning for operations overseas, its planning for possible action inside the United States in response to attacks is inadequate, said the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.
“We looked at their plans. They’re totally unacceptable,” said commission chairman Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine Corps major general.
“You couldn’t move a Girl Scout unit with the kind of planning they’re doing,” Punaro said of plans drafted by U.S. Northern Command, the part of the military responsible for homeland defense.
While other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, are responsible for pieces of the government’s response to an attack, the Defense Department is the only agency with the resources and capabilities to manage the overall response, the commission argued.
The National Guard and Reserve should be ordered to lead the Defense Department’s activities in that arena because those part-time troops live throughout the United States and often have skills needed in an emergency, the panel said.
But the military has not dedicated sufficient time or resources to prepare for such a role, despite the creation of Northern Command after the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to the commission, created by Congress to study the best use of reserve forces.
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