Truly Frightening
The Bush administration is trying to shift blame for the New Orleans tragedy onto local and state authorities. Putting aside for a moment the question of whether that is justified or not, what is truly frightening to me are the stories coming out of resources mobilized and ready to help, but not activated.
For days, I've been wondering why there weren't ships in the Gulf, ready to move in right behind the hurricane. Turns out there was one: the USS Bataan. It was out in the Gulf, because of Katrina, and moved in right behind it. And sat there, because there were no orders to do anything.
There were National Guard from other states ready to deploy; they, too, were waiting on Washington. The resources were there and ready to go; what was lacking was leadership.
Why wasn't anybody in Washington saying "go"? Why, they were all on vacation. It was August, after all, and August has always been vacation month in Washington. Good thing 9/11 didn't happen on 8/11.
Rove and company can spin all they want, they can try to blame the victims, the locals, and Saddam Hussein, but that doesn't change the fundamental truth of what happened here. Either Bush and this administration didn't care about what happened to poor, black New Orleans residents in a non-election year, or they were criminally negligent. Our military was ready to go; our Commander-in-Chief was asleep at the wheel.
For days, I've been wondering why there weren't ships in the Gulf, ready to move in right behind the hurricane. Turns out there was one: the USS Bataan. It was out in the Gulf, because of Katrina, and moved in right behind it. And sat there, because there were no orders to do anything.
There were National Guard from other states ready to deploy; they, too, were waiting on Washington. The resources were there and ready to go; what was lacking was leadership.
Why wasn't anybody in Washington saying "go"? Why, they were all on vacation. It was August, after all, and August has always been vacation month in Washington. Good thing 9/11 didn't happen on 8/11.
Rove and company can spin all they want, they can try to blame the victims, the locals, and Saddam Hussein, but that doesn't change the fundamental truth of what happened here. Either Bush and this administration didn't care about what happened to poor, black New Orleans residents in a non-election year, or they were criminally negligent. Our military was ready to go; our Commander-in-Chief was asleep at the wheel.
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