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About this episode

Gen Victor Renuart, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, speaks at the National Guard Bureau Domestic Operations Conference in Baltimore. Speech from early March 2009. Related: Pentagon plans to station 20,000 troops for 'domestic security'Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response -- a nearly sevenfold increase in five years -- "would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month noted by the Post. But the recognition that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe [Hurricane Katrina might be used as an example] prompted "a fundamental change in military culture." "The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011,"

• Release Date

  Mar 5, 2009

• Runtime

  45:16