In the aftermath of the disaster in New Orleans, questions have arisen as to whether the Bush administration withheld the deployment of troops and other assistance pending an agreement by the Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Blanco, to authorize the invocation of the Insurrection Act , which would have legally allowed Bush to declare martial law and take control of the rescue and rebuilding effort. The NY Times on Sept. 8 reported that "As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, President Bush 's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor." But how this step would have improved the response time is not clear. Landing craft leaves USS Bataan Aug 31. The same Times article quotes unnamed official(s) saying that "no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges." But though the law does bar US Military forces from law enforcement duties absent a declaration of martial law, there are no restrictions on their use in other capacities. Bush authorized more than 7,000 additional active duty troops on September 3 to join the more than 21,000 National Guard troops and more than 4,000 active duty forces deployed to the ravaged gulf region on September 1st and 2nd, law-and-order challenges taking a back seat to the urgency of the rescue mission.
In the aftermath of the disaster in New Orleans, questions have arisen as to whether the Bush administration withheld the deployment of troops and other assistance pending an agreement by the Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Blanco, to authorize the invocation of the , which would have legally allowed Bush to declare martial law and take control of the rescue and rebuilding effort. The NY Times on Sept. 8 reported that "As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, 's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor." But how this step would have improved the response time is not clear. Landing craft leaves Aug 31. The same Times article quotes unnamed official(s) saying that "no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges." But though the law does bar US Military forces from law enforcement duties absent a declaration of martial law, there are no restrictions on their use in other capacities. Bush authorized more than 7,000 additional active duty troops on September 3 to join the more than 21,000 National Guard troops and more than 4,000 active duty forces deployed to the ravaged gulf region on September 1st and 2nd, law-and-order challenges taking a back seat to the urgency of the rescue mission.
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Insurrection Act
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President Bush
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USS Bataan