Honore System
By Callimachus | Related entries in Hurricane Katrina, MilitaryMeet Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, “an icon of leadership in a land hungry for a leader after a hurricane exposed the nation’s vulnerability to disasters.”
It makes me extremely uncomfortable that civil authority in modern America has proven itself inept, and that Americans have yet one more bit of evidence that the military is the last capable branch of the government. I don’t think that’s a healthy development. I’d rather Russel Honore had been mayor of New Orleans or head of FEMA.
And that’s about as far as I’ll go in criticizing anything about the general. He’s a hero, hands down. Some highlights from the AP profile:
Honore was born at home 57 years ago during a hurricane, his mother and an uncle always told him. He grew up poor in Lakeland, La., northwest of Baton Rouge, with 11 siblings, once winning a 4-H contest with the family’s lone dairy cow, Weasel.
… Stepping into a crisis that has drawn criticism of leaders at every level of government, Honore was praised for his compassionate approach to residents and his colorful bursts of instructions to troops, delivered in a Louisiana drawl with spits of profanity for emphasis.
… He views Katrina as an enemy that pulled a “classic military maneuver,” speeding toward land with overwhelming force, surprising and paralyzing the city and countryside and knocking out communications, electricity, water and roads in a “disaster of biblical proportions.” … Honore said it was as if he entered a football game to coach in which it was the “end of the first quarter and you’re down 25 to nothing.”
“You can’t win the first quarter in a disaster. It’s impossible to do it. You got to do the best you can. But you better win the next quarter, take care of the evacuees,” he says. “If the first quarter taught us anything, your plan is a plan but it needs to be executed.”
… “He’s intolerant of lackluster performance,” said Retired Gen. Charles E. Wilhelm. “He has high standards and he’s a sworn enemy of mediocrity.”
… “I don’t intentionally try to be tough. As long as the job’s getting done, I have nothing to say but praise,” Honore says.
… This week, he’ll reunite with one of his four children, a son returning from Iraq after a year of duty. He also has a grandchild.
… The hurricane, he says, reminds him life is fragile and makes him glad he passed on more lucrative pursuits to serve his country.
“I’d rather be in the middle of the game, playing hard with little hope of winning than to be an observer,” he says.
On the other hand, I’m glad he’s not in politics. A year in a political position could poison a virtue like that, even in such an honorable man.
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September 12th, 2005 at 10:32 am
“I don’t think that’s a healthy development.”
People in the miltary certainly don’t think it’s healthy and they/we are loath to take on the responsibility of running cities full of civilians. No one signed on to be an orderly in an insane asylum.
Active duty types in particular think of Posse Comitatus as an article of faith and are often astonished to find what a nasty purpose it originally served. Times have changed and it is an important, good law.