Follow us on social

Hurricane response: This is ‘national defense’

Hurricane response: This is ‘national defense’

The federal government is missing sight of real US priorities


Analysis | QiOSK

When it comes to protecting the safety and wellbeing of actual American citizens, the most important branch of the U.S. armed forces is not the Air Force, or the Marines, or even the nuclear deterrent. It is the Army Corps of Engineers. It might almost be said that it is the only really valuable branch of the U.S. Army in this regard, unless one is seriously worried about an armed invasion from Mexico or Canada.

This is the lesson of Hurricane Helene, that at the latest count has killed 215 Americans (a number certain to rise), with hundreds still missing and feared dead. The cost of the damage is estimated at over $160 billion dollars, with some estimates rising to $250 billion. Just as New Orleans has never fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, so it seems sadly probable that the southern Appalachians will never fully recover from Hurricane Helene.

When it comes to the priorities of the U.S. security establishment (and to a considerable degree the political and media establishments in general), it is necessary to ask: How many American citizens have the Russian or Chinese states killed over the past generation? Have they killed anybody in the United States itself? How much physical damage have they done to the United States? Indeed, how much physical damage could they do, short of nuclear war? How much do they even want to do?

On Friday October 4, with at least 600 Americans feared dead and not yet located, and many towns still cut off from the outside world, the crisis in the southern Appalachians — unlike the crisis in the Middle East, 6,000 miles from the U.S. — did not even make it onto the front page of the online editions of the New York Times, Washington Post or Wall Street Journal, though it would no doubt have been different if the hurricane had hit Washington or New York.

The official response to the disaster has been correspondingly limited (even compared to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina). More than 6,700 state National Guard from all over the country have been deployed, but 27,000 are stationed abroad to compensate for an overstretched regular military. To date, the Federal Government has devoted just $20 million to Helene’s survivors - less than 0.25 percent of the $8.7 billion in only the latest U.S. military aid package to Israel. The U.S. institutions that are in the frontline of disaster response are grossly underfunded compared to the U.S. armed forces.

The most terrifying thing about the U.S. establishment’s inattention to Helene is that it is almost certainly not just a disaster in herself, but also a harbinger of worse to come. Of course, the direct and specific impact of climate change on this particular hurricane cannot be proved; but the science of the origins of hurricanes in warm seas is entirely clear; and so is the rise in ocean temperatures in recent decades.

On basic principles of risk assessment therefore, U.S. administrations must work on the assumption that hurricanes are going to get worse, and plan accordingly. The implications are frightening, in terms not just of the direct physical effects but the impact on the U.S. insurance industry, and people’s access to insurance. It is being suggested that because most of the damage done by Helene has been due to flooding, many of the people affected will find that their insurance policies will not cover their losses. The federal government will have to compensate them — or not. The results for the U.S. economy and the U.S. deficit should be obvious.

Meanwhile masses of people continue to move to Florida to buy property that in future is likely to be both doomed and uninsurable, and the system appears incapable of checking this lunatic process. One can only congratulate lemmings on their wisdom in not buying property before they throw themselves off cliffs.

Hurricane Helene has caused what may be the most widespread and destructive flooding since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. That disaster led to a massive state program of flood control led by the Army Corps of Engineers; one of the greatest engineering efforts in U.S. history, including the Tennessee Valley Authority. It is highly probable that similar efforts — but on an even larger scale -— will be needed in the generations to come. America’s capacity to meet this challenge will be a test of the continued cohesion and effectiveness of the state.

If the establishment continues to prioritize foreign wars over the lives of its own citizens, then it will fail that test.

Members of the Indiana Task Force 1 Search and Rescue team search for a missing woman along the Buck Creek in Lake Tahoma, N.C. on Oct. 2, 2024. Her fiancee was also swept into the flood in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, but was rescued. USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect

Analysis | QiOSK
US groups to Biden: End aid if Israel won't stop brutalizing civilians
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
photo : U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023.

US groups to Biden: End aid if Israel won't stop brutalizing civilians

QiOSK

A group of 60 national, state, and local organizations sent a letter to President Biden on Monday urging him to “hold Israel accountable to U.S. law [by] ending arms sales to Israel to protect U.S. interests, achieve a ceasefire, protect civilians, increase aid access in Gaza, and work towards a stable future for the region.”

The policy, humanitarian, and faith-based organizations — which include Amnesty International, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Quincy Institute, publisher of Responsible Statecraft — expressed disappointment with Biden’s policy of “unconditional support of Israel paired with empty threats,” saying the policy has not yielded any meaningful results and serves to harm America’s global reputation.

keep readingShow less
By the numbers: US missile capacity depleting fast
Top photo credit: Sailors lift ammunition during an on-load aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110). William P. Lawrence is underway on its first operational deployment to the western Pacific region as part of the Nimitz Strike Group Surface Action Group. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Carla Ocampo) File# 130126-N-ZQ631-628

By the numbers: US missile capacity depleting fast

Military Industrial Complex

Regardless of the merits or demerits of the Biden administration’s policies on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the wider Middle East, it has become clear that the United States has been using and giving away its missiles faster than it can produce them.

It is also clear that from the perspective of missile inventories and production, the United States is far from prepared to engage confidently in a sustained direct conflict with a peer competitor like China.

keep readingShow less
Muslim-Americans favored Jill Stein in 2024
Top Photo: Green Party presidential nominee attends a rally in Dearborn, Michigan (REUTERS)

Muslim-Americans favored Jill Stein in 2024

QiOSK

A majority of Muslim-Americans voted for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in this week’s election, while just 21 percent supported Republican Donald Trump and 20 percent voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to newly released data.

The survey, conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and released on Friday, polled 1,575 verified Muslim-American voters nationwide.

keep readingShow less

Election 2024

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.