When you absolutely, positively, have to get something done right away--you call in the military.

By their very nature, men and women in uniform are oriented toward getting things done. They are trained to complete their mission, or die trying. And as Hurricane Katrina made clear, the rest of the government doesn't hold to such a high standard.

Thus we see the difference between the hapless ex-FEMA chief, Michael Brown, and the men who stepped in to do his job for him, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen and Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore.

So why not the best? A natural disaster is like a war: People are killed, property is destroyed--and the nation is, in effect, under attack. So why shouldn't the Department of Defense be involved?

Some argue that we shouldn't bring the military into the civilian sphere, pointing to the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. Well, if they knew more about the origins of that act, they wouldn't point to it. Posse Comitatus was the successful legislative effort of racist Southerners to prevent the U.S. military from protecting the country--meaning, in that era, protecting the lives and property of African-Americans in the post-Civil War South from the violence of the Ku Klux Klan. Then and now, sometimes the military is the only safeguard Americans have against disaster.

President Bush has admitted that he blundered by not deploying troops into New Orleans right after Katrina hit. That blunder was not repeated for Rita, thus helping to avoid a second Gulf Coast calamity. Indeed, at his news conference last week, Bush mused about using the military to help deal with the threat of a bird-flu epidemic. Good for him.

Of course, the long-run answer is for the entire federal government to work as well as the military. Yes, that would be nice. But we've been waiting for the civilians to catch up for, oh, 200 years now. So for the time being, as new dangers loom, let's not leave our fellow citizens at risk by leaving our best relief-and-rescue assets off the table.