These are the times that refresh the soul of an unreconstructed Cold Warrior! I get to cheer every time the Ukrainians or the Israelis somehow engineer another victory over their adversaries, usually through acts of such sheer audacity that neither the Kremlin nor the Pentagon could have imagined.

Second only to that, there is nothing so delightful as watching the current contretemps over the sluggish performance of the Biden White House defending its doltish record cleaning up after Hurricane Helene.  One popular if unkind line holds that FEMA really stands for Funneling Emergency Money to Aliens. And in a week that began with dire stories about the continuing privation in western North Carolina (mostly from online bloggers rather than the legacy media), there was even greater anxiety about Vice President Harris’ declining poll numbers. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ugcPost-7248033426455326721-nVsd

There was also the worrying approach of Hurricane Milton and its impending landfall over central Florida – possibly with a menace even greater than Hurricane Katrina. But the unkindest cut of all was an op-ed penned by Senator J.D. Vance, fresh from trouncing Governor Tim Walz, but now daring to criticize the top of the Democratic ticket: “Biden-Harris Mismanaged Hurricane Helene: A White House that tried to shift FEMA’s priorities left the citizens of North Caroline for days.”   As the Senator explained, “In disaster response, every second counts. A week went by while the citizens of North Carolina suffered without the equipment and soldiers needed to save lives and begin recovery…A competent leader would have ordered those men and women into motion earlier, bureaucracy be damned. Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden treated the situation like a public-relations disaster instead of a real one.”  https://www.wsj.com/opinion/biden-harris-mismanaged-hurricane-helene-disaster-response-7b831494

Well, just who does this upstart Hillbilly think he is, pushing another of his Elegies down our throats? The responses were not long in coming, beginning with Joe Scarborough who appeared on his MSNBC morning show with grim visage, quickly establishing the day’s main applause-line: “The Wall Street Journal is publishing disinformation that might as well be in [far-right outlet] Epoch Times. The fact that it’s from a vice-presidential candidate matters not...When you said there are no standards, this is a perfect example of it. There’s (sic) lies every day.” https://www.mediaite.com/tv/joe-scarborough-blasts-wall-street-journal-for-running-lies-publishing-jd-vance-fema-op-ed-there-are-no-standards/

Several hours later, Joe was followed by that ever-reliable flak, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who got into a particularly nasty exchange with Fox reporter Peter Doocy. She quickly accused him of disinformation, not only including debatable facts but even the premise of Doocy’s questions.

The sequel came at noon on Wednesday, a televised, full-dress White House briefing, allegedly called to discuss FEMA’s preparations for handling Hurricane Milton. To be fair, each of the half-dozen federal officials stressed the need to follow local evacuation guidelines. But avoiding storm surge was second only to the overwhelming need to struggle against the nefarious forces of disinformation - apparently abounding everywhere. As if they were reviewing one of those Russian parades from atop Lenin’s Tomb, each speaker went out of his or her way to lionize President Biden “and you too, Madame Vice-President” for their resolute devotion to FEMA and of course “for fighting disinformation.”

As I wrote in this space last week, my experience with four Gulf Coast hurricanes ended with Hurricane Katrina, when I was embedded for NBC News with the 82^nd Airborne Division. After some initial clumsiness, that operation was commanded by LTG Russ Honore. Deputized by President Bush to create order out of the prevailing chaos, General Honore also commanded the thousands of Reserve and active-duty troops committed to the operation. He invariably led from the front, a commander equally comfortable delegating responsibility as well as demanding accountability. Being from New Orleans, he also understood the emotional impact caused by storms that took away homes, businesses and even lives.

Constantly the star of his own press conferences, he recently told Military.com, "It's simple stuff, but it's the type of stuff that reassures the public that somebody's in charge. Because the public has watched movies. The public's idea of how (stuff) works is John Wayne in the calvary or on a battlefield telling people what to do." With clear chains of command, vast numbers of relief and rescue operations also showed up, many from churches and other religious organizations. "I think people look back at Katrina and say, 'We have one guy, he put his mug up, he's the one that gets shot if it was wrong…We spoke with one voice. That's what people are looking for."

And no disinformation either, sir!

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/10/08/how-active-duty-commander-could-help-helene-according-general-who-led-katrina-response.html

Colonel (Ret.) Ken Allard is a former West Point instructor, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.