HOW HE SEES IT Lessons of Baghdad ignored in Big Easy

By JAMES P. PINKERTON
LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY
As we see the devastation from Hurricane Katrina -- caused first by nature and now by looters, shooters and carjackers -- it's time to state the obvious. We need a larger vision of homeland security, as well as a better focus on the American homeland.
Politicians of both parties have sounded warnings for some time, but true leadership on readying for disaster has been lacking. And so the images from New Orleans last week have recalled not only the panic of 9/11 in New York City but the chaos of April 2003 in Baghdad after the United States ousted Saddam Hussein -- and the looters took charge.
There was warning from on high but not much doing. On July 16, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Republican of Arkansas and new chairman of the National Governors Association, took note of heavy deployments of state National Guard units to Iraq. "If we had a major natural disaster, we would be stretched thin," he warned. "All governors right now are worried about the long-term impact of long deployment." But it doesn't appear that governors did much about these concerns beyond griping to the press. The Louisiana Guard, for example, has about 11,000 members, of whom 3,000 are in Iraq. And yet, of the remaining 8,000 in the Pelican State, fewer than half were on duty the day Katrina struck. Does that look like good leadership from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco?
One might also ask: Where was President Bush as the storm brewed? And Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff? Katrina was identified on Aug. 24, and so national authorities had five days to prepare for its impact on the Gulf Coast. Perhaps there wasn't enough time to strengthen the lifesaving levees, but where was the comprehensive disaster response? Where were the planeloads of temporary generators and pumps to keep the electricity and water going?
And most of all, where were the battalions of law enforcers, including, if need be, troops from around the country? Nowhere.
High-tech warfare
The comparison to Baghdad two years ago is inescapable. Back then, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld, in love with his vision of high-tech warfare, was unwilling to commit the "boots on the ground" that might have kept the peace. Instead, Rumsfeld waved away concerns about the collapse of Iraqi civil society with such airy comments as, "Freedom's untidy." Back to New Orleans. On Wednesday, a tourist told The Associated Press that the city was "downtown Baghdad." That's an exaggeration, of course, but in both cities U.S. authorities scrimped on order-keepers -- penny-wise pound-foolishness at its worst.
While a few journalistic knee-jerkers, such as NBC's Brian Williams, were on hand to pour out their liberal bleeding hearts upon the looters -- "we saw what can happen when people have nothing," he told his audience on Tuesday -- other reporters offered a more honest and hard-nosed judgment.
On the same day that Williams was describing the thieving criminals of New Orleans as hapless victims, The AP reported that looters "floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could." Clothing? Jewelry? Not the first needs of the hungry.
Moreover, The AP continued, looting "took place in full view of police and National Guard troops." This is governmental malpractice -- from the city, the state, the feds.
As in Iraq, the government has chosen to scrimp on the key to effective law enforcement: a big, visible presence on the streets. There are times when simple quantity has a quality all its own. Yes, it's great to have an elite "Starship Troopers" military, skilled at surgical-strike combat. But there are times when we also need a boot-heavy corps of Beetle Baileys to be visibly large and in charge of every street corner. And what's true for Baghdad is true for the Big Easy.
If homeland security is to have any meaning, it should focus on all threats to the home front. Last week, the homeland securitizers failed, big-time.
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service