OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

As I'm posting this I am watching an interview
with Ted Kopel and the head of FEMA,Mike
Brown,who says that he just found out about
the 5 thousand people in the New Orleans
convention center.The mayor and the press
say that the number is 15 to 25 thousand.Five
days after the storm Bush says that help is on
the way.Meanwhile people are dying.
MUTTBOB

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
"THE STORY OF THE HURRICANE
COWBOY WHO FIDDLED WHILE
NEW ORLEANS DROWNED
How Bush Spent His Summer Vacation"

by Amanda Lang, PhD
http://www.opednews.com/
Why did Bush vacation – cut wood, clear brush,
bike, and read -- for days while the world watched
Katrina develop then slam as a category 4
hurricane into the Gulf Coast? Just as he did
on September 11, 2001, he froze. They don’t
have cable or telephones in Crawford? The
unfolding catastrophe has Bush leadership
skills, or lack thereof, written all over it. He
treats his own citizens with the same contempt
and callousness as he does the Iraqi civilians –
as “collateral damage.” If a category 4 hurricane
is not a “bomb” dropping on American soil, what
is? Bush remained on vacation one whole day
after Katrina hit, WAITING FOR WHAT? The
federal government was ‘missing in action’ and
has failed its citizens abysmally. And Congress...
where the hell are they? They rushed back to
Washington over night for one woman’s feeding
tube, but can’t seem to find the way back for a
destructive hurricane that most likely killed
thousands. Are these citizens too poor or not
expounding the right religion to garner the
attention the Trade Tower victims received?
They all sat and watched this train wreck, now
they are screwing up the rescue and salvage,
probably busy searching for the ‘scapegoat’
du jour. Do the Bush administration and
Congress want to create a situation where
they could declare martial law? Looks like it.
New Orleans has become a war zone. Martial
law declared. Since when is a policy of "you loot,
we shoot" appropriate for people just trying to
survive until help arrives? THEY ARE DYING.
So are they ‘looters’ or ‘survivors’ (like the TV
show “Survivor” Americans loves to love)? So
what if in addition to food, water, diapers, and
medical supplies, they take some jeans? They’ve
been wearing oil, chemical and sewer-soaked
clothes for days. They’re wading through floating,
decaying dead bodies. New Orleans is and will
be uninhabitable for three to six months at least,
so the merchandise is already a write-off. Think
about it? Would you want this merchandise?
Let good come from it while it can.
The ‘survivors’ have obtained weapons and are
using them. Escaped prisoners riot and hold
hostages. People go ‘feral’ displaying ‘pack’
and/or ‘mob’ behaviors when threatened and
their lives are in 'great peril.' Unfortunately, in
America you can find a gun anywhere in virtually
any caliber, so chaos reigns. A "loot-shoot"
policy only exacerbates the problem. Relief
workers received orders to divert efforts from
‘saving people’ to ‘crime fighting’. Why choose
‘property’ over ‘life’? The policy lacks common
sense, compassion, or understanding of the
survival instinct. CNN has images of people
dead and dying on camera. Their reporters are
watching people – children and elderly – die
before their eyes. The sick, injured, dehydrated,
starving, and scared feel abandoned. In the hot,
stinking Superdome, where 25,000 refugees
await evacuation, fires and fighting are breaking
out. Fear, anger, and hopelessness will push
conditions to a boil, and more people than
necessary will die – mostly the innocent
victims of this horrible disaster.
Do we need to request U.N Aid and Peace
Keeping Forces? It appears we lack the
expertise and leadership to prevent or deal
with a major national crisis. Why aren't these
convoys and helicopters dropping in water,
food, and medicine to these trapped individuals?
Yes, conditions are deteriorating, but our
National Guard soldiers fly helicopters through
Iraq every day taking gunfire for a far less
legitimate cause. Is the relief necessary beyond
the Bush administration's capabilities? We do
not posses the numbers of National Guard
soldiers and relief workers necessary to get
this situation under control. Just like Iraq –
not enough bodies on the ground to do the job.
Bush cut funding to New Orleans hurricane
preparations by $72.1 million and gave eight
jets to Pakistan – FREE – valued at $36 million
each = $288 million. Get the picture. ‘Survivors’
of this crisis sure could use that $288 million
and the $5.6 billion per month [this breaks down
to almost $186 million a day] or $672 BILLION
PER YEAR the Neocons are throwing at Iraq,
plus the billions in pork given to corporations
this year alone.
Even worse, image you’re a National Guard
soldier in Iraq that has family, friends, and
property in ‘harm’s way, but are stuck policing
the streets of Iraq. The irony of the situation is
macabre. You were sent to fight an urban guerilla
war based on a 'buffet' of evolving lies and
rationales -- perhaps on your second or third
tour -- and your family is back home dealing
with this mess alone -- homeless, injured,
starving, drowning, or dying -- and you are not
there and you don't have a clue what their
condition is because no one else does. Tragic
irony. They face an uncertain future and still
may die themselves on a street or road in Iraq.
In the news, they hear of over-the-top CEO
salaries, while Florida hotels evict refugee
families so fans can attend a football game.
How would you feel to discover your loved
ones where not evacuated, even though it was
known a category 4 or 5 hurricane was
approaching? Or even worse, they still stuck
in the disaster area because at your pay scale,
they just couldn’t afford to leave.
A reckoning time is here. The ‘Hurricane Cowboy’
has a lot to answer for, as do the ‘knuckled-headed’
Neocons and the ‘do-nothing’ Congress. This
tragedy should have been prevented. Hundreds
of thousands of Americans lives completely
destroyed and while Bush fiddled with a guitar,
went on a two-day speaking jaunt/fund-raiser to
California and Arizona, and ‘read’ a speech,
ironically to a group of sailors and WWII veterans:
"This morning, our hearts and prayers are with
our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast," Bush
said. "We know that many are anxious to return
to their homes. It's not possible at this moment."
His heart and prayers may have been there,
but his ass sure wasn’t.