Disaster Disgrace

How big a disgrace? Let us count the ways.

First, we saw Katrina coming. Both the actual storm, days before, and the virtual storm, years before. We knew this could happen, and yet did little to prepare for its eventuality. We saw Katrina approaching, and yet how many buses, troops and supplies were readied before it hit? Why weren’t armies of relief workers and guardsmen waiting on the margins, ready to swoop in? Emergency preparedness? What a joke, and an absolute failure of government.

Second, the President got on television immediately afterward and gave a speech so ridiculous as to be surreal. In typical “deny-bad-news” fashion, he glossed over the severity of the tragedy and spent his time mouthing simplistic drivel. We will rebuild. The people are tough. These are heroes. Gonna get past this. Help is on the way. Life goes on. If we let this disrupt our lives, the terrorists have won.

He should have said: “This is an urgent national emergency. I call upon every citizen to pitch in and help in any way they can. The situation is dire. Every minute counts. We are failing the victims. We can’t rest until every victim, every stranded person, is found, housed and properly cared for. The local responders and national guard have no excuse for not being on the ground within a day of this tragedy. We are obligated to pursue a thorough investigation of this mess when the situation is under control.” Days later, the best he could say was that the situation was “unacceptable.” How pathetic.

Unfortunately, President Bush lacks the intellect and leadership skill to understand what a situation like this calls for. In fact, he stated “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees…”, which was either an outright lie or an indication that he is just plain stupid. People--scientists, engineers, urban planners, local officials--have anticipated a breach of the levees for years, and have apparently done little to protect the citizens of New Orleans from that risk. But Bush is incapable of acknowledging the incompetence, misjudgment or failure of anyone remotely associated with power, particularly conservative power, and unable to speak truthfully about the severity of any situation that doesn’t smell like a rose. Why? Because his Presidency is so insecure and brittle that any acknowledgement of hardship, trouble or mistake might confirm what many suspect. That his administration is utterly inept.

Finally, we should not forget that Bush and his war-bound cronies gutted FEMA and turned it into a shell of its old self. Like so many other agencies, current and former workers have been complaining for several years about the degradation of FEMA by the Bush crew, claiming it was treated like an unwanted stepchild, sidelined and ignored, its top managers forced to depart for greener pastures. And now we have grim evidence of the veracity of their claims.

Every American should now wonder how prepared we really are for future calamities and terrorist incidents, and hold our elected leaders accountable for this botched response, which has clearly cost many lives and untold suffering. We should also wonder when we will stop spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to fix the rest of the world and fix ourselves.