Posted on 01/23/2010 10:59:39 AM PST by topfile
The parents of Britney Gengel, the college student from Rutland still missing after the Jan. 12 eathquake in Haiti, returned home yesterday from a nine-day vigil at her Florida campus after hearing from the US State Department that the mission has shifted from rescue to recovery, leaving slim chances of finding any survivors.
“They will start pulling the building apart layer by layer,’’ Leonard Gengel read from a statement yesterday at Logan International Airport, referring to the hotel where his 20-year-old daughter had been staying when the 7.0 earthquake hit.
His voice breaking, he said, “We are asking our government to guarantee that every American dead or alive [in the hotel rubble] be accounted for and brought home in a dignified way.’’
The State Department did not immediately return a call yesterday.
-snip-
Leonard Gengel made an emotional appeal to President Obama last week, urging him to do more to aid the rescue effort.
Gengel told reporters yesterday that he never imagined he would be begging the federal government to bring his daughter home, dead or alive.
“It’s just unimaginable and unthinkable,’’ he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I'm not speaking of Race or ethnicity!
I'm concerned that US citizens are becoming global Citizens first... Americans second.
The UN was in charge. Finding Americans was not exactly high on their list.
“I’m talking about known US Citizens rescued by the United States Government efforts.”
Yes, part of the US Government’s effort was to rescue Americans, but the primary objective was and remains to save lives, no matter what their nationality.
Can you provide documentation that would show that the UN gave priority to rescuing citizens of other countries over Americans?
This was while the US govt was saying to the families that comms were down and no military could get to the hotel.
The French led a recovery effort at the Montana, which was filled before the quake with diplomats, foreigners (100 US citizens including some US Marines) - the French operation did use at least one US search team, but this was NOT coordinated by the the US embassy, which apparently DID NOTHING.
The families were adamant that 7 days after the quake there was still no evidence of any concern for the US victims in the Montana by US authorities in Haiti.
One father broke down and asked BOR to use media pressure to ensure the Hotel search would not be abandoned and that someone would stay there to tell them what was going on.
Then tell us that the US embassy did not direct its first efforts to finding US embassy employees and that the UN did not spend its first efforts looking for UN employees.
Three Americans arrived in Baltimore this week from the hotel Montana- they are alive because the French led rescue operations there that saved them.
Fair enough, and my position is that that was wrong.
Saving American citizen lives should be first priority for US Government efforts. American Citizens do not come first with our current President. This Administration has proved this over and over again.
Two approaches are possible in these circumstances. One is to build up an infrastructure capable of handling the crisis, This is, basically, a bureaucratic approach. Immediate help is delayed to insure that adequate resources are available to meet demand at some point in time.
The second is to send small teams of rescuers ahead instantly. Israel did this with their field hospital, set up on day one.
Fire Departments and other emergency responders bypass bureaucracy to provide instantaneous help. Governments and most agencies are more concerned with planning, organization and structure.
Both responses are necessary. Sadly, our administration’s interest in UN bureaucratic procedures does not allow for instant response.
The families are right. Our government’s response to Haiti has been strategically incompetent by failing to provide instantaneous rescue activity.
“Three Americans arrived in Baltimore this week from the hotel Montana- they are alive because the French led rescue operations there that saved them.”
Oh, so you are saying that the French rescuers actually saved Americans as opposed to only trying to rescue French citizens?
Good thing they were not asking for people passport’s before they dug them up from under the rubble.
And I am sure the American rescuers did not ask to see people’s US Passports before saving their lives.
Amazing!
And you believe that past presidents would have directed the military during such a disaster to only rescue Americans?
Please try to stay within the framework of reality. If you are of the globalist liberal position, I respectfully ask that you make your argument without resorting to these type of silly absolutes.
Decaying corpses have nothing to do with spreading disease after a disaster.
It is not an absolute.
It is my position that rescuers when rescuing people from earthquake rubble, should follow procedures that include, triage and extracting people and bodies in a manner which is consistent with recommendations of structural engineers and those developed by rescuers that have responded to past earthquake/collapse disasters.
And in those procedures, there is no reference to saving the lives of Americans first, especially when saving the life an American may further endanger the life of other nationalities that are trapped in the rubble.
If you know of any other procedures that are better than those developed by structural engineers and of those developed by rescuers that worked in the Mexico City Quake, the SF Quake or the Northridge Quake, please provide that information.
What sane parent lets their 19-23 year old daughter go to the Western Hemisphere's Porta Potty? Even if there had not been an earthquake it is insanity to send your children to an HIV petri dish full of criminals.
They blame the Military for not caring. They failed to care enough long before the earthquake.
There is danger that diseases may spread throughout Haiti if the corpses that litter its streets will not be collected for proper disposition, international aid groups told CNN today.
http://technorati.com/politics/article/corpses-litter-haiti-streets-diseases-may/
And while there is not great risk, there is still a risk that disease can be spread from the corpses especially in an area where there was and is a high incidence of infection among the native population.
Certainly blaming the military is misguided. I saw it too but struck me as desperation.
Unfortunately, the Military ultimately answers to Obama, for now.
Excruciatingly painful for me to watch the failure of our government in this instance. Those Americans down there for the most part were there to help the people.
They could not dig thru the Montanna building..it sits on a hill and no one could get to it with heavy machinery to do the job of lifting the debrie.
Furthermore the slabs crumble when they do lift them...the concrete is so poorly made to begin with.
I don’t believe anyone was at all avoiding the Montanna..they did recover some there, those they could reach... and there’s no guarantee this families daughter was even in the building.
I feel sad for all who lost loved ones, but I think it’s unfair and cruel to blame any one who is helping there. Everyone is doing the best they can. Also, important to remember MSM is looking for the story and will frame it however they can to sell the story.
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