This needs to be on FoxNews. This is what makes America great.
Someone please explain to me how the USA has the biggest and most effective army ( staff, planes, boats, etc.) in the world… and yet they still need civilians to go ahead and do something ?
Because the army doesn’t do any rescues, the US Coast Guard does. Speaking as someone with an SO in the Guard, it’s just nowhere near as respected a wing of the military as the others. Instead of being under the Department of Defense, it’s under the Department of Homeland Security, so any of the huge budgets the DOF get don’t go to the Coast Guard’s budget, and the fed tries to cut the USCG’s budget all the time. They managed to do so de facto recently by not adjusting their budget for inflaction. (Thanks, Trump.) Trump and his cronies tried to cut it a full 14-15% but the guard and people affiliated with it fought back on it hard enough to lessen the damage some.
The fed throws all the money at the army, navy, etc. because a lot of the senators and stuff get kickbacks from their financial interests and donors that are tied up in weapons manufacturing and the military industrial complex. Because the Guard doesn’t need to commission big expensive weapons (the most they ask for is Coast Guard cutters, which are expensive as hell, but vitally important to what they do, and they usually only ask for a new one here and there every few years), there’s nothing the politicians and their donors can get bribes and kickbacks from. They and their donors don’t have as much vested financial interests in the boat-makers, a lot of it is in making planes, bombs, big navy ships, and weapons.
Ergo the Guard is the redheaded stepchild of the military, looked down on even by other military members. (Never mind that they’re the ones flying helicopters during hurricanes trying to save people).
When this started, the Guard had over two dozen ships already deployed around Houston before Harvey even made landfall, and in just this weekend, as of when I write this in the wee hours of 8/28/17, they’ve already saved 1200 people (200 of them by air with just 5 helicopters.)
This happened during Katrina too, where they made the most of what they had and made miracles happen with it. During Katrina while FEMA was floundering and the federal government was dropping the ball, they didn’t even wait for federal permission to go in and started rescues before getting ordered to by the fed. Their attitude towards search and rescue is basically to just act now, and not even apologize later. And because of that, of 60,000 people that needed rescue during Katrina, they saved 33,500. With only a little over 5,600 Guardsmen.
So, to answer your question, because the federal government/politicians don’t give a shit about the arm of the military that rescues people, fights sea pollution/oil spills, and actually secures our borders (by patrolling for drug and human traffickers that use waterways). They only care about the wing that blows shit up and kills brown people in other countries because that’s where they and their donors get money from by shady financial dealings with the military industrial complex. A lot of politicians are deep in the back pockets of people that manufacture stuff for the other branches of the military. The USCG just doesn’t get the same support.
Thank you a lot for this very informative answer. It makes more sense now to me. Do you think an event like this one will maybe push for a bigger budget for the Cost Guard ? Was the budget after Katrina ( And before Trump) increased and matched the real need of the Cost Guard or did it stay the same ?
It might help since the press is covering how the Guard is already in there getting rescues. When Trump and co. tried to push for the 14-15% budget cut the efforts to prevent it were even bipartisan, ie even some Republicans tried to stop it from going through, because they recognized it was bad to cut their budget. In the end, it was prevented, but the Guard still took some cuts like mentioned in the article above where their budget wasn’t adjusted for inflation, when the budgets of other parts of the military (under the DOD) were increased.
But it’s still unlikely. Trump and the Republicans’ agendas always favor big business/their donors over the public. The only way this might help is it might protect the Guard a little because budget cuts might be more unpopular with the public after them seeing the Guard doing rescues, making the Repubs want to avoid any disfavor with their constituents.
As for the budget after Katrina, even Obama’s administration made cuts at times, so it really didn’t get much better, even after the Bush administration ended. None of the recent presidents have respected the Guards’ financial needs at all, while they constantly add more and more responsibilities and the Guard faces more and more challenges and big crises (like cleanup with the BP oil spill).
Part of the problem is the Guard is under the Department of Homeland Security. In one way, this is good because they can’t have their budget totally slashed to give it to the army, navy, etc. like some politicians would try to do. But the downside is they have to compete in budget with 20+ other agencies, including FEMA and the TSA.
So the Guard just isn’t really treated well compared to some of the other military wings and other agencies. They’re expected to do a whole lot with a lot less. The only reason they really manage to pull it off is that the Guard is really, really strict on who they recruit and their boot camp is absolutely fucking brutal. Like they really only take in these super gung ho people who care a whole hell of a lot about what they do, and it’s hard to succeed in the Guard or even get into it in the first place unless you’re that kind of person. Every single Guardsmen that I’ve ever met are just completely dedicated to what they do and super good at cooperating together.
Mooncustafer 