(05-11-2020 06:26 AM)DragonLair Wrote: Trump had over 2 years to restock puke the goods and chose not to. In my opinion that’s on him and the people responsible for maintaining the stockpile.
By that standard, Obama had over 7 years and did nothing.
But in reality, neither Obama nor Trump, nor any of their political appointees, likely had any direct involvement, or likely even knowledge, of the issue. This is the kind of thing that gets handled pretty far down the chain of command.
The problem is not who is president, but rather the lack of a trained, ready, standby emergency response team to handle emergency situations. We don't have that, and every time we have an emergency--hurricane, flood, oil spill, wildfire--it takes us a while to get organized to deal with it. And because nobody trains for these things on a regular basis, nobody is made currently aware of logistics issues. If we had somebody training on handling pandemics on a regular basis, and every year they realize that they are simulating masks and gowns because there aren't any, by about the third or fourth year, at the latest, somebody figures out that we need to buy a bunch of masks and gowns. When you don't train for these events, you don't realize these sorts of needs. Nobody goes and inventories masks and gowns, or other PPE, every year. It's only when you try to use them that you realize shortages.
I've mentioned this before, but I was a member of a Navy reserve unit that was responsible for managing the flow of military cargo through Texas ports in support of a Russian invasion on Europe. We had gone from following a canned training program prepared by the Navy to getting out into the ports and actually simulating what would happen upon activation. We identified critical shortages--no office space, no telephones, no secure communications link--because we were out in the ports doing the job. Over several years, we got those addressed. That invasion never happened, but Desert Storm did. When it did, we hit the ground running. Other ports were manned by folks who had followed the canned agenda. They knew that part very well, but they didn't have offices or phones or secure communications, so they took a few weeks to get set up to do their jobs. It makes a huge difference.
Who can be that standby team, ready to go? That's the $64,000 question, to use a phrase that has probably lost its meaning. My proposal would be the National Guard. They are standby, so we don't have to pay for unutilized capacity 24/7/365, and they know how to mobilize in a hurry. Get rid of their backup Army reserve mission and task them with civil defense and emergency response, two areas were we are woefully deficient. Have them trained and equipped and ready to go. Medical would obviously be a big part of it, because in any emergency there is going to be a huge medical component.
