Bush actually said much the same thing in his speech to the nation from New Orleans' Jackson Square two weeks ago. But the line about an expanded role for the military received little attention compared to tremendous interest in the President's plans for rebuilding the ravaged city of New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf coast brutalized by Hurricane Katrina.
It's a bold and risky move. At a time when the nation has extensive commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the White House is pushing the idea of giving the military a more important domestic role. Bush might have chosen a more modest approach like talking up FEMA reforms. But he's gone a much more adventuresome route, one that could well involve revisiting century-old statutes restricting the use of troops at home. To be sure, McClellan indicated that the president is thinking of a lead role for the Department of Defense in disaster relief only when the chaos is of the order of magnitude of a Katrina. But that's still a big new assignment. And McClellan insists that the Pentagon is not overextended. "The military has said otherwise," he told reporters Sunday. Don't be surprised if before too long there's a whole new assignment for American troops.