COG

I just watched a show about the US policy of Continuity of Government (COG) in the event of some disaster or attack. After watching it I have to say it did more bad PR than good. It talked about the usual places government officials would go (ie Air Force One, Mount Weather, NORAD, etc) and how those officials would live and work - their gyms, hospitals, stores. I'm not sure how the ordinary American is supposed to feel safe knowing that they will be left alone to deal with everything on the surface while the government is either burrowed under ground or in the air saving themselves. Nowadays many people see politicians as corrupt and/or useless (ie the Government Shutdown, impending Debt Ceiling crisis) and don't see them as capable of handling everyday things like paying the country's bills much less restructuring everything in the event of an attack. The show kept having officials on saying how "well-prepared" the COG is and how they are constantly doing tests to ensure the success of the plans. Yet, they did say that when the COG was implemented on 9-11 (the first and only time it has) there was complete chaos among the different officials and agencies and all their plans were useless as they were for a large-scale nuclear attack - a throwback from the Cold War. I guess there was no one smart enough in the government during the 10 years from when the Cold War ended in 1991 until the 9-11 attacks in 2001 to make a new set of plans for the changed world where the US was the sole Super Power. So all the officials can continue to say that they are overly-planned and tested for everything until they are blue in the face, but when pushed they failed. Like I said, there was more bad PR than good.