Im baffled at the lack of control of the situation. Here we are, a country always at the ready to help other countries when they experience disaster yet we cannot seem to do anything right (at least from reports) to help the majority of the people.
Im starting to think Bush just needs to take control of the situation. The mayor and governer seems to be bumbling idiots only elongating the suffering. Put them in charge of refugee emailing duties and let adults take charge of this.
Perhaps, but perhaps not. As a practical matter of survival for the numerous cities, counties, and states across this country, NOLA may serve as an effective example of why local and state politicians should be chosen with care, and not just for the trinkets they give away so freely.
I'm not trying to be harsh, but the federal government should not be in the business of micromanaging the emergency response capabilities of every community across the country. FEMA is a warehouse, a pipeline, a supplier and distributor. They supply the locals, who should know where everything needs to go, and should have figured out a way to get it there.
To cry for federal ham-handed control here sets a VERY dangerous precedent, although I can and do concede that it may be a necessary one.
I think about 2,000 people who refused to evacuate have been plucked off rooftops by our heroic helicopter angels. That's where the priority was for the first couple of days, and rightly so as the water continued to rise. Now, the feds are beginning to catch up on supply and food drops, but it's a little difficult when gang members are running around with guns, threatening and shooting people.
The media is jumping all over Bush right now. This is where Bush is hurt by the fact he's not a hands-on/Type A personality kind of president. He was slow to leave his ranch, he's probably still getting to bed at a fairly early hour. He seems out of touch. Al Gore would probably be sitting in the Oval Office 21 hours a day with a communications headset on, directing each helicopter to each location.
Rudy Giuliani would be handling this much better, I believe.
You're right.
My theory is the President's advisors (and Bush himself) wanted to do that but then there is this politically correct roadblock of "taking control from Mayor Nagin and the bozo governor."
In hindsight, the FEDs should have seen the disaster developing and knew the locals would be overwhelmed and took control, federalized the thing by an immediate reques tto declare MARTIAL LAW from a federal angle (not LA or local) and run things.
This is a disgrace to see such pathetic leadership.
If a WMD went off, is this the kind of Fed inaction?
Where are all these simulations and scenarios and stuff that are run over and over again? It is like all those BILLIONS for planning and simulation testing were spent for naught.
Make no mistake no matter how many argue your point, you are 100% correct. The Fed should have seen the dire situation and and ran things immediately.
Finally, re law and order, what dummy did not know that New Orleans was a high crime city (one of the worst in the nation), low education, high mental illness rate, high welfare groupie rate, etc, and did not know that chaos would explode? My God! It is astounding the government does not know the type of people that make up the major cities--law and order MUST be priority #1, even ahead of search and rescue, because the search and rescue can't proceed without law and order.
What a national disgrace! All of America and all of the world now knows the degree of decay that has happened in our major cities.