Text 1393, 254 rader
Skriven 2005-09-12 23:33:06 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (050912) for Mon, 2005 Sep 12
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President, Lieutenant General Honore Discuss Hurricane Relief in Louisiana
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 12, 2005

President, Lieutenant General Honore Discuss Hurricane Relief in Louisiana
North Claiborne and Cleveland Streets
New Orleans, Louisiana


˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Hurricane Relief

9:29 A.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank the Governor for joining us today and thank
the Mayor for joining us. My impression of New Orleans is this, that there
is a recovery on the way, there's progress being made, but there's a lot of
serious and hard work that's yet to be done.

I was briefed today about the search and rescue that continues. I was also
briefed about the different projects that are taking place. There's a
containment of an oil spill; the electricity is beginning to be turned back
on. The Mayor is anxious, of course, to get parts of the city up and
running, but he's also mindful that there's a lot of work to be done for
that to happen.

General Honore and Admiral Allen briefed us, as well, about the close
coordination between the federal government, state government and local
government, all aimed at solving problems. And we just came through an area
that had had substantial water in it, and the dewatering is an indication
that the city is moving forward. But I'll repeat, we got a lot of work to
do, a whole lot of work to do. And my pledge again to the Governor and the
Mayor is the federal government will work closely in coordination with
their authorities.

You know, one of the things that the people are beginning to think about is
the long-term revival of New Orleans, for example, or the surrounding
parishes. My attitude is this: The people of New Orleans can design the
vision; the people of New Orleans can lay out what New Orleans ought to
look like in the future; and the federal government will help. The people
of Louisiana can lay out their vision of what Louisiana will look like, and
the federal government can help. I think the best policy is one in which
the federal government doesn't come down and say, here's what your city
will look like. The best policy is one where the local folks say, here's
what we want our city to look like and let's work together to achieve that
vision.

And so I -- as we're beginning to get through this recovery phase, and the
rescue phase, and the transitional phase -- recovery phase -- we're
beginning to think through the -- how to reconstitute this really important
state, as well as along the Mississippi coast, as well.

At any rate, again, I want to thank you all for being here. I appreciate
you taking time out.

I'll answer a couple of questions. Yes.

Q Sir, what do you make of some of the comments that have been made by
quite a number of people that there was a racial component to some of the
people that were left behind and left without help?

THE PRESIDENT: My attitude is this: The storm didn't discriminate, and
neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast Guard choppers, many of
whom were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn't
check the color of a person's skin. They wanted to save lives.

I can assure people from the -- and I know from the state and local level,
as well, that this recovery is going to be comprehensive. The rescue
efforts were comprehensive, and the recovery will be comprehensive.

Q Mr. President, does the federal government need the authority to come in
earlier, or even in advance of a storm that threatening?

THE PRESIDENT: I think that's one of the interesting issues that Congress
needs to take a look at. And it's really important that as we take a step
back and learn lessons, that we are in a position to adequately answer the
question, are we prepared for major catastrophes, that the system is such
that we're able to work closely together and that --

Q Do you recommend that Congress consider allowing the federal government
to act more quickly?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it's very important for Congress to take a good,
close look at what went on, what didn't go on, and come up with a series of
recommendations. And my attitude is, is that we need to learn everything we
possibly can; we need to make sure that this country is knitted up as well
as it can be, in order to deal with significant problems and disasters.
Meantime, we've got to keep moving forward.

And I know there's been a lot of second-guessing. I can assure you I'm not
interested in that. What I'm interested in is solving problems. And there
will be time to take a step back and to take a sober look at what went
right and what didn't go right. There's a lot of information floating
around that will be analyzed in an objective way, and that's important. And
it's important for the people of this country to understand that all of us
want to learn lessons. If there were to be a biological attack of some
kind, we've got to make sure we understand the lessons learned to be able
to deal with catastrophe.

Q Will what is needed to get this area back on its feet have any impact on
the timing of troop withdrawals in Iraq?

THE PRESIDENT: In Iraq?

Q Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: We've got plenty of troops to do both. Let me just -- let me
just talk about that again. I've answered this question before, and you can
speak to General Honore if you care to. He's the military man on the
ground. It is preposterous to claim that the engagement in Iraq meant there
wasn't enough troops here, just pure and simple.

Do you care to comment on that?

GENERAL HONORE: Well, we have about 90,000 members of the Reserve and
National Guard deployed, of a total force of approximately 400,000. So
90,000 are deployed. We've got the capability. We're here, we're
demonstrating in deed every day. We're performing the mission with the
great support of the National Guard from multiple states. The response is
here. The troops are getting the job done under the conditions that you see
here today, and they're making America proud that we have that capability.

We have capability. We're applying it -- air, land and sea -- our federal
forces in support of the Governors of Louisiana and Mississippi under the
direction of the Adjutant General. The system is working. We've got the
capability, and we're looking forward to get the job done and get the job
completed, until the Governors tell us otherwise.

THE PRESIDENT: The troop levels in Iraq will be decided by commanders on
the ground. One, we're going to -- our mission is to defeat the terrorists,
is to win. Secondly, the strategy is, as Iraqis stand up, we will stand
down. And so, to answer your question about the decisions made on the
ground in Iraq, they will be made based upon the ability of the Iraqis to
take the fight. And more and more Iraqi units are getting more and more
qualified.

There's still a lot of work to be done there. Obviously, we're going to
make sure we have a troop presence to help this political process go
forward. There's an election -- the ratification of the constitution --
election will be coming up, and, of course, there will be elections this --
later on this year. And we will have the troop levels necessary to make
sure those elections go forward.

After all, the enemy wants to stop democracy. See, that's what they want to
do. They want to kill enough people so that -- in the hopes that democracy
won't go forward. They tried that prior to -- more than eight million
Iraqis voting. They were unable to stop Iraqis from voting, because people
want to be free. Deep in everybody's soul, regardless of your religion or
where you live, is a desire to be free. And they can't stop it. And what
we're going to do is help -- and they can't stop democracy from moving. And
so what we're going to do is help make sure those elections are accessible
to the Iraqi people.

Q Mr. President, there is a belief that we've been hearing for two weeks
now on the ground that FEMA let the people here on the ground down. And
perhaps, in turn, if you look at the evidence of what it's done to your
popularity, FEMA let you down. Do you think that your management style of
sort of relying on the advice that you got in this particular scenario let
you down? And do you think that plays at all --

THE PRESIDENT: Look, there will be plenty of time to play the blame game.
That's what you're trying to do.

Q No, I'm trying to --

THE PRESIDENT: You're trying to say somebody is at fault. Look -- and I
want to know. I want to know exactly what went on and how it went on. And
we'll continually assess inside my administration. I sent Mike Chertoff
down here to make an assessment of how best to do the job. He made a
decision; I accepted his decision. But we're moving on. We're going to
solve these problems. And there will be ample time for people to look back
and see the facts.

Now, as far as my own personal popularity goes, I don't make decisions
based upon polls. I hope the American people appreciate that. You can't
make difficult decisions if you have to take a poll. That's been my style
ever since I've been the President. And, of course, I rely upon good
people. Of course, you got to as the President of the United States. You
set the space, you set the strategy, you hold people to account. But yeah,
I'm relying upon good people. That's why Admiral Allen is here. He's good
man. He can do the job. That's why General Honore is here. And so when I
come into a briefing, I don't tell them what to do. They tell me the facts
on the ground, and my question to them is, do you have what you need.

Q Did they misinform you when you said that no one anticipated the breach
of the levees?

THE PRESIDENT: No, what I was referring to is this. When that storm came
by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet. When that storm came through
at first, people said, whew. There was a sense of relaxation, and that's
what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You
know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways,
say, the bullet has been dodged. And that was what I was referring to.

Of course, there were plans in case the levee had been breached. There was
a sense of relaxation in the moment, a critical moment. And thank you for
giving me a chance to clarify that.

Q Mr. President, where were you when you realized the severity of the
storm?

THE PRESIDENT: I was -- I knew that a big storm was coming on Monday, so I
spoke to the country on Monday* morning about it. I said, there's a big
storm coming. I had pre-signed emergency declarations in anticipation of a
big storm coming.

Q Mr. President --

THE PRESIDENT: -- which is, by the way, extraordinary. Most emergencies the
President signs after the storm has hit. It's a rare occasion for the
President to anticipate the severity of a storm and sign the documentation
prior to the storm hitting. So, in other words, we anticipated a serious
storm coming. But as the man's question said, basically implied, wasn't
there a moment where everybody said, well, gosh, we dodged the bullet, and
yet the bullet hadn't been dodged.

Q Mr. President --

THE PRESIDENT: Last question.

Q This is two weeks in. You must have developed a clear image at this point
of one critical thing that failed, one thing that went wrong in the first
five days.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think there will be plenty of time to analyze,
particularly the structure of the relationship between government levels.
But, again, there's -- what I think Congress needs to do -- I know Congress
needs to do -- and we're doing this internally, as well -- is to take a
sober look at the decision-making that went on.

And what I want the people of this state and the state of Mississippi to
understand is that we're moving forward with relief plans. And we're going
to move forward with reconstruction plans, and we're going to do so in a
coordinated way. And it's very important for the folks of New Orleans to
understand that, at least as far as I'm concerned, this great city has got
ample talent and ample genius to set the strategy and set the vision. And
our role at the federal government is -- obviously, within the law -- is to
help them realize that vision. And that's what I wanted to assure the
Mayor.

Thank you all.

END 9:42 A.M. CDT

* Sunday

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