Lieutenant General Russel Honore- Where Are You?
Anybody else remember this guy berating reporters in New Orleans at a press conference shortly after Hurricane Katrina? The briefing was supposed to be about the approaching Hurricane Rita, but the press kept tossing the General questions about the government's response to Katrina.
I won't even pretend to be an informed expert on the caustic layer-cake of issues facing the Gulf Coast region thanks to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill right now, and to be honest, I think that the now-retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore would be the first to tell us he doesn't know that much about subaquatic drilling and extraction. If the President was even halfway serious about wanting to know "whose asses to kick", he should've picked up the phone and given Gen. Honore a call to co-ordinate containment and recovery planning between BP and the feds.
Where is Gen. Honore these days, anyway? Besides the occasional speaking engagement these days, I wonder what he's up to?
Oh look! I found him....wow...that took me all of 20 seconds.
Having said that, I think the cleanup effort could really use somebody with the Lt. General's leadership acumen calling the shots. This is somebody who doesn't have to jet off to attend a concert by Paul McCartney, go to a Barbara Boxer fundraiser or hit the links with Joe Biden [although he could if he wanted to, since Gen. Honore is now retired- NANESB!].
Two months of platitudes, concerts, obfuscation, finger-pointing, solicitation, speeches, mea culpas, photo ops, spin, Potemkin cleanup, golfing, grandstanding, fundraising, bungling, subpoenas, moratoriums, litigation, yachting, press conferences, indecision and feeble attempts to change the subject still hasn't 'plugged the damn hole'. And you know it's bad for the Obama administration when their most loyal and unthinking cheerleaders start ripping him apart for his tepid address from the Oval Office.
As badly botched as the initial response to Katrina was, the public seemed to rally around Gen Honore. He spoke his mind to New Orleans officials, a glib media and even his own men, caring more about outcome than opinion.
Sadly- almost 5 years later, there is no Gen. Honore on the Horizon so far.
I had the priviledge of serving under Gen. Honore when he was ADCS (Assistant Division Commander Support) in the First Cavalry Division. Leaders like him made it easy for us to do our job as you knew he swung a big hammer and would use it to keep any or all of us safe.
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