Colorado Springs – President Bush was scheduled to tour the nerve center of the U.S. Northern Command this morning after arriving at Peterson Air Force Base on Friday evening.
He plans to monitor Hurricane Rita from the base’s joint operating center and meet with staff on a stated mission to better understand how the military can assist state and local governments in times of crisis.
Bush made no public comment when he arrived in Colorado Springs but told a Friday audience at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, that, “I need to understand how it works better.”
“We’re going to explain the command and control and give him an operational update,” said Michael Perini, spokesman for U.S. Northern Command. “It’s important that he understands the various military organizations.”
Bush’s attention to Hurricane Rita comes when his approval ratings are at an all-time low. Recent polls indicate that most Americans believe the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was slow and ineffective.
This is Bush’s first trip to U.S. Northern Command, a joint operation of the four military branches.
It was established in 2002 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Also called USNORTHCOM, the command focuses on defending U.S. borders from attack and managing the consequences of an attack, if so directed by the president or secretary of defense.
USNORTHCOM has no troops but, in this second role, acts as a one-stop shop for state and local governments to seek military assistance.
Perini said state and local governments have already requested helicopters, troops and medical equipment in preparation for Hurricane Rita’s landfall.
“We’ve already airlifted 1,700 patients out of Texas with military helicopters,” Perini said. “The Navy and Coast Guard have ships positioned in the gulf.”
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, USNORTHCOM arranged for 4,000 Coast Guard personnel to work on rescue operations as well as for helicopters and a fully staffed Navy hospital ship.
Bush was scheduled to leave Colorado Springs later Saturday and fly to Texas.
He had planned to stop Friday in San Antonio but canceled the visit at the last minute because the search-and-rescue teams he had planned to see were being moved closer to the path of the huge, shifting hurricane.
“We didn’t want to slow that decision up in any way,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
The president was trying to walk a line between helping in a crisis and being seen as interfering.
“There will be no risk of me getting in the way, I promise you,” the president said at FEMA headquarters.
In a speech to the nation from New Orleans this month, Bush urged “greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces” – which are barred by law from performing any domestic law- enforcement functions.
He didn’t specify what he meant, but some have suggested since that the legal limits should be loosened, and the White House has not ruled that out.
“NORTHCOM is the main entity that … uses federal assets, federal troops to interface with local and state government,” he said. “I want to watch that relationship. It’s an important relationship.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
