Apparently the President feels his only obligation in office is to foreign
policy as he shrugged off domestic issues such as the leak investigation and
Katrina recovery as “background noise”.
President Bush vowed Thursday to avoid the “background noise” of criminal
investigations and other Republican political problems to focus on the
nation’s needs.“The American people expect me to do my job, and I’m going to,” the
president said.With his political stock falling and several allies under investigation,
Bush tried to keep focus on the nation’s business at a Rose Garden news
conference with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.He said that prospects for Palestinians were gaining steam and noted that
there have been elections and Israeli land withdrawals since Abbas’ last
White House visit. “It’s been an eventful year,” Bush said.
View the full AP article
here
This seems like somewhat of an insubordinate statement by the President to
the people who he represents. The leak investigation involves the disclosure of
classified information that could be used to help protect us in a time of war
and Katrina shows our vulnerabilities at home to respond to disaster – natural
or man made.
This came out at the same time that a new congressional report was released
that says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left our National Guard under
staffed and under equipped to respond to disasters at home.
U.S. National Guard units are under-equipped and increasingly unready to
help in domestic disaster relief because essential gear is left behind after
service in Iraq and Afghanistan, a congressional report said on Thursday.Heavy demands on the Guard since September 11, 2001, have caused
“declining readiness, weakening the Army National Guard’s preparedness for
future missions,” the Government Accountability Office said.It said the Pentagon’s strategy for the Guard was “unsustainable and
needs to be reassessed,”The report said Guard officials believed the response by its units to
Hurricane Katrina last month “was more complicated because significant
quantities of critical equipment, such as satellite communications
equipment, radios, trucks, helicopters and night vision goggles, were
deployed to Iraq.”Guard troops and other relief workers complained that they did not have
the equipment to communicate properly for days after Katrina swept ashore,
destroying phone and radio links.The Bush administration has dismissed concerns expressed in Congress that
foreign deployments had hampered the military’s ability to respond to
domestic disasters. “We’ve got plenty of troops to do both,” President
George W. Bush said last month.The report said the Army National Guard estimated its units had left for
follow-on troops overseas in Iraq and elsewhere more than 64,000 items
valued at more than $1.2 billion.
View full Reuters article
here.
Bush’s response to this report once again demonstrates his disconnect with
reality. Did he quickly forget the images on T.V. the days after Katrina? It
became obvious to the American people that we do not have the necessary troop
levels to handle both and has no become obvious to Congress yet the President
ignores the division of government that is charged with his oversights
assessment of the situation.
Since President Bush feels that Congress is so wrong in their assessment, it
is time for Congress to call him to the chambers to answer for his logic. Bill
Clinton was constantly under the microscope during his Presidency and this
President has not had to answer to Congress yet. As matter of fact, this
President ignores the questions of Congress continually. This borders on
becoming a constitutional crime and it can not be allowed to go on.