It almost looks like some are advocating ANOTHER layer of bureacracy in our disaster response systems.
Yeah, like that'll help.
It's been my experience that at some point you've got to stop adding layer upon layer upon layer of oversight, and actually pay attention to the folks on the ground doing the work. Adding extra layers of people who are nominally in control and able to push them every which way won't do much except cause a great deal of confusion when it comes to figuring out who should be able to decide what - and who should be RESPONSIBLE for what.
A long time ago the military figured out that trying to run things by committee wasn't a good idea. You don't see comittees at the squadron, wing, or group levels - you have squadron commanders, wing commanders, and group commanders. Each level gets its orders from the next higher level, which allocates resources according to what's available and appropriate. (Which is why you'll rarely see the 90th Avionics Maintenance Squadron being used for engine repair at the 90th Logistics Group motor pool, or the 33rd Water Purification Squadron being used to fix electric lines.) You won't see (except in EXTREMELY unusual circumstances) a shortcutting of the chain of command. That just isn't effective, and leads to confusion.
Now the critics of the response say things should have been different, that the procedures and command structures should have been bypassed. Well, maybe yes and maybe no. The structures are there for a reason - you don't just arbitrarily toss them to one side because you think the people in the positions of command are incompetent. But then you get into a stickier situation - what criteria do you use to decide the competency? Media reports? Timeline checklists? Senatorial dictates?
We need to examine the problem carefully, and make sure there's a real, measurable deficiency AND identify some real ways to fix it before we start slicing off chunks from the systems we have now. Otherwise, if a storm like Katrina hits while we're in the middle of a gut&replace, we'll be SOL.
J.