Louisiana Governor Jindal Blasted Feds For No Support, But Failed To Activate His Own Troops

While Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has made a big show of complaining that the Obama administration hasn’t given him what he says he needed to deal with the oil spill crisis, he has not deployed thousands of National Guard troops he could be using.

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s message has been loud and clear, using language such as “We will only be winning this war when we’re actually deploying every resource,” “They (the federal government) can provide more resources” and “It’s clear the resources needed to protect our coast are still not here.”

Jindal isn’t the only governor who hasn’t used available resources, even though he’s been the most vocal.

As of today, the federal government has authorized a total of 17,500 National Guard troops across four Gulf states, all to be paid for by BP.

But CBS News has learned that in addition to Louisiana’s 1,053 troops of 6,000, Alabama has deployed 432 troops of 3,000 available. Even fewer have been deployed in Florida – 97 troops out of 2,500 – and Mississippi – 58 troops out of 6,000.

Jindal and the Coast Guard’s Thad Allen disagree about what Jindal can and cannot do.

“Actually we asked the White House to approve the initial 6,000,” Jindal said. “What they came back and said is the Coast Guard and BP had to authorize individual tasks.”

But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander in charge of the government’s response to the spill, said Jindal is just flat wrong.

“There is nothing standing in the governor’s way from utilizing more National Guard troops,” Allen said.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.