United States Of Shame
September 3, 2005
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
