Home > United States of Shame
by MAUREEN DOWD
Stuff happens.
And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens.
America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it’s happening in America.
W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn’t dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.
Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N’Awlins. He was clearly moved. "You know, I’m going to fly out of here in a minute," he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I want you to know that I’m not going to forget what I’ve seen." Out of the cameras’ range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal.
Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses.
Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.
Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.’s prewar reports.
Who on earth could have known that New Orleans’s sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy’s uneasy fishbowl.
In June 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, fretted to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
Not only was the money depleted by the Bush folly in Iraq; 30 percent of the National Guard and about half its equipment are in Iraq.
Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.
Just last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials practiced how they would respond to a fake hurricane that caused floods and stranded New Orleans residents. Imagine the feeble FEMA’s response to Katrina if they had not prepared.
Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn’t know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.
Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job."
It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo’s on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.
When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.
When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.
Who are we if we can’t take care of our own?
E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com
Forum posts
4 September 2005, 04:13
Maureen Dowd, I love you. I read you, I watch Bill Mahr every week, but I watch and tape when you are on, and I do the same when you are on the talking head programs on Sundays. You may be the only person in the media who was not afraid of the White House and the Republican run FCC; who dares to tell the truth, all the truth, and to do it in the face of an out of control Republican "Leadership"?) which has chosen lies, half truths, and payoffs to their supporters like Halliburton for one. I hate these people, especially over the last 5 days since the New Orleans, and the rest of the coastal cities and states that have suffered first from the terrible hurricane, but worse for the man made disaster that eminated from Washington and this useless, cowardly, lying administration. What can you expect from the party of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolessa Rice, and Pat Robertson, as well as so many more. I am saddened, embarrassed, incensed, and disgusted with the image of America which this group has allowed to permeate the entire world. Iraq would have been a joke if we weren’t sitting by watching our troops, our youth, like I was during my service in the Viet Nam era die and get body parts blown off. That doesn’t even mention the sadness I feel about how we have asked and in fact helped to insure the Iraqi’s massive deaths. I have loved and served this country, and have supported by my words and deeds, political candidates, voted for them, and been stunned at who my fellow American’s decided to vote for rather than my candidates so often, I do have Barak Obama to cheer for, and I was Paul Simon’s friend, at least on the fringe. I loved the things Bill Clinton stood for, and feel that way, I think, about Hillary. I was enamoured of John Kennedy, and though I loathed his 4 years as President, Jimmy Carter has been a bright and shining ex-president, maybe the best ex any party ever had.
I have seen the American Press so infuriated by what has been allowed to happen in the coastal regions of America since this hurricane, that they have found their voices and slammed the President and those who were appointed by him to handle emergencies in this country and speak out about it, the first time since Dan Rather was kicked out by CBS for telling the truth, despite poor judgement by his research team in selecting who and what to accept as proof. It was true! But you have never backed down and again, I love you for it!!!!! Thanks for all the sincere, honest look and reporting at what has been going on here. I wish the Democratic Party had someone with your courage to speak the truth and make it there platform, rather than being afraid the Republicans would not speak well of them for telling it like it is.. Scott Mount, 3305 Bradley Avenue, Granite City, IL 62040 (618)876-6622
My email is Mounty5199@aol.com Is it possible I could have you sign a picture and send it to me??? I promise it would hang in a place of honor in my home. Either way, thank you!!
4 September 2005, 04:39
Just after watching ’the US Cavalry drive 5 days late into New Orleans, and listening to the Prez’s feeble ’who could have predicted?’ spluttering, I changed channels and watched footage of AUSTRALIAN Relief people arriving in the stricken city.
I say that again - AUSTRALIAN. As in that big lumpy blob on the opposite side of the planet and the other bloody hemisphere.
With no notice at all - they came half way round the globe to be of assistance in the same time it took the US Relief to drive down the road to deal with a crisis that had been brewing for years and known as a horrible reality for over a week.
What a spectacle for the watching world!
Well done, Prez.
Sheridan,
5 September 2005, 18:31
Thanks for truthful article Maureen
I’m in London UK and think that If Only Bush and pals can at least belatedly Pull Out of Iraq..and start minding their own business ie..looking after American citizens and Forgetting World domination we just might have a hope!
To call on the UN for help because America’s money and soldiers are all in Iraq and stuff is outrageous..
And how about Bush’s OWN family fortunes..with pals Haliburton..Carlisle group et al? Bet you they’ve all been making millions..which is ALL they actually care about!
Aviva Maxwell