Bob McCarty Writes

Only days after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explained the systemic flaws that allowed the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood to take place, I was shocked at what I saw during one television report this morning — especially in light of what other television reports have described.

A short while ago, Fox News Channel reporter Steve Harrigan was shown standing upon a hill in Haiti where U.S. Army soldiers, which he described as members of the 82nd Airborne, were overseeing distribution of relief supplies to Haitians desperate for food, water and, in many cases, medical attention.  As the camera panned the crowd from a distance of 30 to 40 feet, Harrigan described the soldiers as not carrying weapons and wearing only “camel packs” — backpack-like water supplies.  Conversely, other reports — here and here, for example — during the past two days have described “surging violence” and fear of violence on the part of relief group officials.   And who can blame them?  Earlier reports cited roving machete-wielding gangs and escaped prisoners.

WHY are members of the 82nd Airborne not armed in this potentially-volatile environment?  Perhaps, BECAUSE President Barack Obama named Dr. Rajiv Shah, chief administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as his point man for the crisis instead of Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commander of U.S. Southern Command and the top U.S. military official on island.

Shameful!