Bush Sending More Troops to Gulf Coast

[Constant]

Bush Sending More Troops to Gulf Coast

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush, seeking to stem criticism that a slow federal response has contributed to needless misery, said Saturday he is ordering additional active duty forces to the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast.

"The enormity of the task requires more resources," the president said. "In America we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need."

Bush said 4,000 active duty troops are already in the area and 7,000 more will arrive in the next 72 hours from the Army's 82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg, N.C., 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, and the Marines' 1st and 2nd Expeditionary forces from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Those troops will be in addition to some 21,000 National Guard troops already in the region.

The decision came after the president met for nearly an hour with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and others involved in planning the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Bush took the rare step of delivering his Saturday morning radio broadcast live from the White House Rose Garden with Rumsfeld, Chertoff and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by his side.

Bush was resolute and sobering during his remarks, but he smiled when he commented on the people of the region, which he visited Friday.

"When you talk to the proud folks in the area, you see a spirit that cannot be broken," he said.

After returning to Washington late Friday from nearly seven hours spent touring some of the most devastated areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, Bush took several more steps in his effort to meet that pledge of support and to recapture the leadership kudos he won after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bush immediately signed a $10.5 billion disaster aid package passed by Congress

[PwrInTheBld]

While we don't have anywhere near the number of troops the US has, I was thankful to finally hear that my country is sending 3 navy ships and a Canadian Coast Guard vessel loaded with supplies!

[Qun Mang]

"If we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?" asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican.

Sadly, Gingrich does have a point here.

But I'm glad help has finally arrived.

[Fiosh]

Isn't it a wonderful thing that in this country when the military marches in, the people are filled with relief----rather than fear?

I heard a newscaster say today, "FEMA has failed miserably and the task has been turned over to the military. The US military WILL get it done!"

I am so grateful for our men and women in uniform.

God bless them all and protect them always.

Fiosh