Defense Secretary Robert Gates Declares Gulf Oil Spill Beyond Military's Expertise

SINGAPORE — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is rejecting a more forceful role for the military in plugging the Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

Gates says the deep-water disaster is beyond the military's expertise.

Oil company BP is using its own equipment to try to stop the leak – equipment the U.S. military does not have.

Speaking in Singapore, where he is meeting with Asian defense officials, Gates said Friday that the U.S. military is ready to do whatever it can to respond. But he also said there isn't much the military can do beyond providing some manpower.

There is a growing call for some kind of federal takeover of the spill, which has now been gushing for six weeks.

Comments

[Marnie1]

07:49 AM on 06/07/2010

Love Gate's "can do spirit."

Of course he can't clean up a mess because the military has been leaving nuclear wastes, munitions and garbage in depots and abandoned bases all over the world and at home. They don't know how to clean up, even their own toxic waste.

They don't clean up their mess, destruction, radioactive shells and vehicals or toxic trash after the wars they start and lose against smaller nations either.

[StopThePlanet]

01:39 AM on 06/07/2010

We don't want the military to be in charge for several reasons. First of all, they do lack the expertise. The coast guard is the only branch capable of taking on a major role.

The second reason we don't want a lead role is once we do that we own it. Mistakes will be attributed to the US and provides opportunity for BP to weasel out of paying costs.

Third, if we lead and failures keep happening, we will be blamed.


The military role should be one of monitoring, enforcement and after training, helping clean and contain the mess.

The government should hire 3rd party industry consultants to assist and assess until everything is capped and then to assess the initial, current and future damage.

The goverment should then insist BP make good for all costs, even if that means temporary receivership.

In the meantime, we should be examining regulations in Canada and Scandinavia and their track record. Once we know in detail what has worked in these countries we must implement their best practices in this country even if the oil industry crys foul.

Finally we need to investigate MMS employee and prosecute and terminate and fine based on the lack of job performance, violations of law and complicity to subvert the law. And the we replace these people with qualified new experts who have a set of checks and balances in their processes that reduce the likelihood the prior SOP could return. Biometrics could verify proper signatures.

[Marnie1]

07:52 AM on 06/07/2010

But the military has manpower, vehicals etc. that could be helping protect our shores, our citizens and our commerce from the deadly invasion of our soverign soil.

That, after all, is their job.

[StopThePlanet]

10:02 AM on 06/07/2010

You clearly didn't read my post.

[LouEstes]

07:15 PM on 06/06/2010

Too bad we entered into a contract with BP for these services. By doing that, the point was to let the professionals do it!
Again, paying for professional services and it falls short.

[ghickmanlaw]

02:52 PM on 06/06/2010

As a former scout pilot in Vietnam and a proud progressive, I am offended. There are a couple other Air Cav types I served with who are even more "left" than I am.

Since when do non-thinking, conservative Republicans have a monopoly on patriotism and the only right to express opinions?

Please, cut out the (false) generalities and let's talk about actual events and situations using facts... not Fox "News" talking points.

[Whitley2009]

12:46 PM on 06/06/2010

I'm puzzled. Is it not the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that is supposed to coordinate all emergency efforts before, during, and after nature disasters? I would have assumed that FEMA would have emergency plans in existence to aid our coastal states when they are suffering an oil spill. Or, is it up to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?

President Obama and the Homeland Security Agency need to do a detailed study as to who will have immediate jurisdiction of certain types of disasters.

[MyrtleJune]

05:15 AM on 06/06/2010

Well, this doesn't bode well for our national security. We're lookin' miiiiiiiiiiighty weak as a country at this moment. BP accomplishes what teeerists all over just lurrrrves to see.

I would think AT LEAST some supertankers to suck up the oil wouldn't be too much to ask for here. Yes, I know bp doesn't want to pay for them, but some has got to get the freaking oil!!!! It should not be making landfall.

Meanwhile the bp head is off "getting his life back"........

[bmike]

01:15 AM on 06/06/2010

Repugs want Obama to clean it up and in a hurry.The truth Cheney knows how to cap the well and clean the oil up.Oil is his specialty V.P. was part time.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

08:22 PM on 06/05/2010

OK, then. So far, here’s what we know:
The spill is beyond BP’s capabilities.
The spill is beyond the Military’s capabilities.

I have an idea. Let’s round up Dick Cheeeeeney and GW Bush and Sarah Palin and John McCain and Bobby Jindal and every other corrupt Teapublican and give them all little plastic pails and little plastic shovels so they can scoop up the globs of oil off the beaches before it gets to the marshes and the animals.

While BP is just sitting around with their “you know what” up their “you know where”, telling us “well August looks good, maybe by the middle of August we’ll have figured out a way to cap this sucker….” we can have ALL the Teapublicans that took money to loosen up safety regulations and “look the other way”, clean up the beaches.

This would shrink government. Teapublicans are all for small government and since they are not really doing anything constructive in Washington anyway AND since we’re paying them, we should get some real work out of them.

That’s my idea. I like it.

[George R Williams]

09:36 PM on 06/05/2010

Only the weak-minded believe that ceding their personal prerogatives to government bureaucracy serves them well. When government uses that power contrary to your personal preferences; removing your freedom of action to the point that it becomes intolerable, you should not bother to complain, as you'll deserve it.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

11:17 PM on 06/05/2010

What?????? Maybe you should read the post again, when you're off the sauce.

[middleoftheroad]

07:05 PM on 06/05/2010

Obviously the military are not experts in oil drilling!

[Michael Valentine]

01:13 PM on 06/05/2010

Under Secretary Gates they can't win a war in a third world country either.

[dawgspiel]

01:37 PM on 06/05/2010

Difficult to do. We're backing a hopelessly corrupt central government whose influence and power doesn't extend much beyond the capitol city. The countryside is filled with motivated fanatics who can hit us and blend back into the general population at will. We're the strangers in a strange land, not them.

Vietnam was much the same. The Thieu/Diem regimes were also hopelessly corrupt without widespread popular support. Outside of Saigon, the government's legitimacy and authority were practically non existent. ARVN troops were unmotivated and unreliable. The Viet Cong saw themselves as patriots fighting against an evil regime backed by foreign invaders and were highly motivated. The VC refused to meet the U.S. Army in open battle for years frustrating Westmoreland to no end. On the rare occasions it or North Vietnam regulars tried open battle instead of ambush tactics they got their butts kicked. The Tet Offensive was a colossal military failure for Ho and the boys. But after being assured the war was all but won, the ferocity and scope of the attack turned American public opinion against the war. From then on, we were looking for the exit.

To win in Afghanistan would take 500k troops and years of commitment and much treasure, something we're not prepared to do. I suspect Obama intends to continue working to cripple Al Qaida until he get bin Laden and will call it a day.

Complicating the entire thing is Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Don't want the crazies with nukes.

[Michael Valentine]

09:28 AM on 06/06/2010

Complicated by the need of the military industrial complex to drain the national treasury.

As Smedley Butler said, "War is a racket.".

[marlyt51]

12:07 AM on 06/06/2010

Michael, you really should get off your high horse about trying to win the war in Afganistan.Just ask the russians.Do some research.In your case check out Wikipedia.When we had the chance to do something in that region we were too busy fighting that BS in Iraq.We're good but, Hey! I got a idea. lets get Clarke Kent to get a hold of Superman,He can travel 5000 ft.under the Gulf, stop the leak with his heat-ray vision.,stop the leak,create a giant blender motion to suck up all the plumes that BP say aren't there.Spin them into space and then find the taliban with his x-ray vision. and make them quit.How about before 3:30 tommorrow because,Hey I forgot Superman has floor seats for the lakers vs. celtics.You will know him because he will be sitting next to Chris Rock and Kobe!!!!!!

[Michael Valentine]

10:39 AM on 06/06/2010

So your good with an endless war?

How much stock do you own in war profiteering corporations?

Last I checked Afghanistan hasn't been successfully occupied for a couple of thousand years and the general in charge of this the longest war in American history says that it's a draw at this point.

All the while our national treasury is being sucked dry on a fools errand.

But that's just me on my high horse.

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

12:37 PM on 06/05/2010

OH- schucks----

TEA PARTY will set Sec Gates straight!

What does he know anyway!

TEA PARTY no bets---- probably could not pass CHEM 101!

[Angiefranci]

12:00 PM on 06/05/2010

So what department is supposed to handle environmental disasters, do we know?

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

12:36 PM on 06/05/2010

EPA?

[dawgspiel]

12:44 PM on 06/05/2010

EPA has most responsibility for environmental problems. I don't think there's a "They Just Killed the Ocean" response department anywhere.

[Angiefranci]

05:05 PM on 06/05/2010

I really like your response. It made me laugh and cry at the same time.

[George R Williams]

10:26 AM on 06/05/2010

I'm often amazed at how the progressive Left, which historically has never served in the military, but has tended it abuse it, runs in a hand-wringing mannered way to demand that they solve the nation's messes. However, I can't think of one past oil spill or well capping that would make our armed forces qualified to do the job. Where are all those unemployed SEIU workers? They're well qualified to clean up slop from the beaches, because that's just their skill level.

I'm also amused by the left's James Carville's criticism our new messiah. He cannot miraculously fix a calamity and his minions turn on him. The Left will eat its young in a heartbeat.

Frankly, I'm tired of hearing the thug-like community organizers talking about "boots-on-the neck of BP", and tired of hearing the president's community organizer/SEIU approach of demonizing BP. Our president points to a recent share dividend paid to BP's shareholders in an attempt to demonize them. However, BP's shareholders are not evil oil barons of old, but consist of millions of British pensioners and others who've invested part of their earnings for modest retirements. If BP goes under, so do their future retirement dreams. However, the Left, to include our community activist president, cannot see any further than their short term political gains. Remember Rahm Emmanuel and his philosophy of not letting a crisis go to waste? You can bet that the president and his back room dealers from Chicago won't.

[Democrat in the South]

10:54 AM on 06/05/2010

You must have worked for George Bush, you know the system well. The gulf coast doesn't give a crap about BP shareholders.

You are wrong about the progressive left serving in the military. The military doesn't care which political party you belong to. How many dead soldiers have you heard of that were progressive left? How many have you heard of that were right wing extremists?

What have you done for your country lately? Why don't you go to the gulf and clean up that slop? You don't have to be "progressive left" to clean slop.

[dawgspiel]

12:56 PM on 06/05/2010

No way to tell for sure, but I'd guess the post you reference is a plant. It's carefully constructed to pack as many right wing talking points as possible into the limited space available. Note the impeccable grammar. Someone spent considerable time crafting it, far more than is common on message boards where participants typically dash something off and then move on to the next post.

[George R Williams]

04:19 PM on 06/05/2010

John Kerry went into the military to exploit its political value, even to the point of lying about his exploits. He's been a cog of the corrupt Democrat party for decades.

You are right about the military's being apolitical as a matter of policy, but in fact, the vast majority have a conservative Republican point of view.

Democrats are "Looters" of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". They tax and tax and tax with the perspective that everything man owns or creates belongs to the government first, with the remaining portions parceled out to the producers of wealth as they see fit. As Margaret Thatcher once said, "socialism works until you run out of other people's money." Socialism will soon be dead, as BO and the Democrats continue to spend the US into poor house, like Greece.

As for me, I am a civilian who has served with the military during Desert Shield/Storm and for tours in Germany, Korea, and more recently in Iraq and Kuwait. I'm about to go back to Korea on a three year tour on behalf of my country. What have you every done for your country?

I've seen the tactics of SEIU, and they include terrorizing the family of an oil executive by trespassing in a mass demonstration on his front porch. How cowardly! We've seen them physically assault their opposition. These are BO's community organizing bunch of thugs, along with the corrupt ACORN who have been publicly exposed as morally bankrupt people.

[arnth01]

11:08 AM on 06/05/2010

Kudos well said

[ChristyH]

09:46 AM on 06/05/2010

FINALLY.... someone is speaking the truth.... what do people think - we can send in the Marines to solve this problem.....

The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Seals, Army Rangers DO NOT PRACTICE HOW TO PLUG A GUSHING OIL WELL.....

Now if you want the above forces to storm BP Headquarters - that they could do..... But how would that help the waters in the Gulf?

Yes, the military can show up with manpower, but that isn't the problem..... And all of those out-of-work fisherman can use the paycheck..... Let's just pray they don't get sick in the process....

[olivia]

09:12 AM on 06/05/2010

Please please please watch:

Who Klled the Electric Car?

On YouTube - search on - who killed the electric car part 1

Documentary available on NetFlix or probably your library

Hundreds drove the E.V.1 in California for a year and begged GM to let them keep them. GM confiscated them and crushed them. They have the technology. They proved it works, probably for 90% of Americans.

Perhaps when the last drop of oil is extracted from the earth, if the earth has survived that and the human race has survived it, they will manufacture the E.V.1 again.