It's Always About What it Looks Like

To use an old cliché, perception is reality. But if it is such a cliché, why does it seem like no one involved in last week's U.S. Coast Guard 9/11 panic had a clue?

Frankly, I don't think White House spokesman Gibbs' reflexive slam of CNN's response to the event helped matters. If anything, he's responding without research in the same manner in which he is accusing CNN.

From my perspective, the onus here is on the Coast Guard officials. If a "standard" exercise on the anniversary of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil is deemed necessary for the safety of U.S. citizens, I won't second guess it. But does not strategic planning -- in the military sense -- take into account the reaction of allies and enemies to both genuine and perceived threats? How much effort would it have required to communicate with fellow government entities (local, state, and federal)? Really, it all comes crashing down around the fact that there wasn't even any (apparent) internal communication within the Coast Guard, in that the spokesperson was contacted twice, and neither the spokesperson nor the Guard's own command center knew anything about the exercise.

Short, dumb little story: back east, in the dead of winter (we're talking tens and teens on the thermometer, folks), my wife and I decided we wanted to grill some steaks. I pushed the grill to the back door of our garage and fired it up. Mmmm, barbecue! A minute or two into grilling, I glanced upward at the waft of smoke emerging from the back of the house. This can't look good, I thought to myself. What did I do? I picked up the phone and called our next door neighbor (just one -- it was a very rural area) and said "Oh, by the way, if you see smoke coming from the back of our garage, don't call the fire department -- we're just cooking some dinner on the grill!"

At least the Coast Guard could have picked up the phone and made a call, or two. What's more, as long as it didn't interfere with the proper function of the exercise, this event could have been announced to the media and the public -- to the benefit of the U.S. Coast Guard image -- that through the tireless and ongoing efforts of the Coast Guard, our country is being kept safe and secure, even as we commemorate the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

The scary part is, this lack of communication isn't just an invitation to a public relations tragedy. If you can't communicate internally or with fellow government agencies, you're inviting a another flesh and blood tragedy.