"Had we gone in with less force it may have been challenged," Blum said. "Innocents may have been caught in a fight between the Guard military police and those who did not want to be processed or apprehended, and we would put innocents' lives at risk."

Lt. Gen. Blum said the overwhelming invasion force helped keep the operation to retake the city peaceful, especially at flashpoints like the city's convention center, where thousands of refugees gathered.

"Major General Landreneau, yesterday shortly after noon stormed the convention center, for lack of a better term, and there was absolutely no opposition, complete cooperation, and we attribute that to an excellent plan, superbly executed with great military precision," he explained.

"There was no violent resistance, no one injured, no one shot, even though there were [people who were] stabbed, even though there were weapons in the area. There were no soldiers injured and we did not have to fire a shot."

The top military man said that the collapse of the New Orleans police force also complicated rescue efforts.

"No one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans," he told reporters.

"On a normal day they should have 1,500 paid officers in New Orleans," Gen. Blum said. "And I think the mayor told me they're down to less than 500."

"Once that assessment was made, that the normal 1500 man police force in New Orleans was substantially degraded," he said, "then the requirement became obvious and that's when we started flowing military police into the theater."

Even before the Katrina disaster crippled law enforcement, New Orleans had a crime rate ten times the national average.

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