I have heard a lot of self-serving Republican excuses for the failure of federal government response to Hurricane Katrina. Many of them start with the statement “No one could have foreseen…”
Pure defensive bullshit. There is nothing that has happened on the Gulf Coast or to New Orleans that was not foreseen!
Everyone knew there would be a big hurricane. Everyone knew that if it hit New Orleans the city was likely to flood and that evacuation would be difficult at best. The only thing no one knew was when.
Preparation for the hurricane was like insuring for death. Everyone dies, the only uncertainty is when. Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast are the same. The question is never if. It’s when.
An effective government would have had plans and supplies in place and would have tested them in exercises, then funded the needed command structure, prepositioned equipment and kept a list of available people and resources. These people have been winging it because none of this was done.
What we have seen is mostly a failure of planning and funding at the federal level, command structure, a lack of professionalism in FEMA, and a resulting lack of coordination and mutual support among the various federal, state, county/parish and local governments.
This federal government decided that they could gamble that no hurricane would hit – on their watch – so they could cut taxes and invade foreign countries the were no threat to us. Funding Hurricane preparation didn’t win the next election, so Rove ignored it. Funding Hurricane preparation took money away from Cheney’s unnecessary war. Bush himself delegates all work to whatever political supporter has contributed the most money and he is too lazy to waste energy evaluating the job his appointees do. Too busy being on vacation and riding his bike. Got to keep his life in balance, you know.
Bush/Rove/Cheney have given us very bad government. Ask the people on the Gulf Coast.
As a young Army officer I stayed up nights concerned that something would happen that I had not anticipated or prepared for. I assigned people to do tasks to accomplish the job of my unit, and they were each responsble to me for those tasks. But I was responsible for accomplishing the job given me from my commander. What had I overlooked? What was I unaware of? What if I had failed to anticipate something that had to be done to accomplish my mission? What did I not know?
As a commander I was responsible for the successful accomplishment of the jobs my unit was assigned, as well as for everything my troops did or failed to do. That means I was responsible for the unknown and unanticipated as well as what I was told to do. Ladies and gentlemen, that is what leadership is.
That’s what Harry Truman meant when he said “The Buck stops here.”
Bush hasn’t shown leadership.