Press Release from the U.N. News Centre:
US ACCEPTS UN OFFER TO RUSH AID TO VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA
New York, Sep 4 2005 2:00PM
The United Nations announced today that the United States Government has accepted the world body’s offer of help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A small UN Coordination team is in Washington now consulting with government officials on how the UN can best complement the US’s own emergency efforts.
“The UN’s coordination team in Washington will be based at the newly established USAID Hurricane Katrina Operations Center, where offers of international assistance are being coordinated,” a UN spokesman said in a statement released in New York.
Among those “ready to provide emergency staff and a wide variety of relief supplies as and when necessary” are the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to the statement.
In an earlier press release today, the U.N. announced that it has “mobilized an urgent response to last week’s Al Aemma bridge disaster [in Iraq], which killed or injured an estimated 2,000 people, rushing aid to the affected families and working to bolster the capacity of local hospitals to treat survivors.”
Excellent. I was half-joshing when I wondered aloud here earlier this week whether the UN would be called in. Maybe we’ll actually see something resembling a coordinated operation now that the experts (the real experts) will be arriving.
Now if only we’d let them fix our fuck up in Iraq.
If they could do it without literally getting blown up, like they already were, maybe they could help out. Don’t even get me started today on Iraq…
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Are now 10,000 Americans who have perished on the oil rich Gulf Coast of the U.S.
Delays by Bush | Cheney | Bolton and failure of the DHS | FEMA organization to meet the challenges of hurricane Katrina disaster, shows the centralist focus by the neocon led Federal Government. Politics has become more important than delegated decision making for increased flexibility to cut red tape and save lives.
Identical to functioning of totalitarian administrations like the Komintern in the 20th century Communist Party of the old Soviet Union. For internatonal revolution one should read instead: spreading freedom and democracy neocon style.
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three days ago to our Bolt-on ambassador. I suppose BushCorp finally realized that it would play better, politically speaking, to accept the offer.
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I understand the EU and NATO offers for assistance have been accepted by our Central Government in Washington DC.
Eight days too late :: costing thousands American deaths and unnecessary misery for tens of thousands in new Orleans.
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Amazing.
The United States, the “world’s only remaining superpower”, has to accept offer of aid as if it is Bangladesh or Ethiopia.
Perhaps the necessity of receiving United Nations assistance will turn Bush’s far-right supporters against him? But then who would they support? Are they planning on cloning Hitler?
Cross-posted at DKos.
Nato and the European Union…
Begging for blankets, first aid kits, water trucks and food…
— link via Raw Story —
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB3UK6B7DE.html