.....:)
Posted on 09/06/2005 9:59:35 PM PDT by WJHII
Who is to blame for New Orleans?
By William John Hagan
Houston Home Journal Print Edition 09/07/2005
David Vitter, a United States Senator from Louisiana, estimates that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina could reach 10,000 people. The reality is that a true death toll will never be known but 10,000 dead may just scratch the surface. Large-scale casualties in a natural disaster such as Katrina in unavoidable but the fact that the world’s most advanced nation had days to prevent such a massive number of deaths makes these numbers even more unacceptable. In the coming weeks politically-motivated accusations of blame will begin flying from the Bijou to the Beltway.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush will be the prime targets of these attacks. I suspect that those with a vested interest in attacking the President, everyone from anti-war activists to Hilary Clinton, will attempt to place the blame on his shoulders. Unlike, Nagin and Blanco, the President has admitted that he should share in the accountability for the poor response to Katrina. Last week, President Bush readily admitted the actions of the federal government were “not acceptable”.
Bush’s primary failure was that he did not force Gov. Blanco to request federal help sooner. Bush was powerless to federalize the situation and Blanco failed to request help until August 26th. Given the track records of incompetence of both Blanco and Nagin, the administration should have publicly demanded that Blanco authorize help prior to the 26th.
The reality is that Bush was powerless to even order an evacuation of the city. As of Sunday the 28th neither Blanco nor Nagin ordered people to leave the city. President Bush was forced to request this action after the mayor and governor failed to act. The delay of this mandatory evacuation order by Nagin resulted in the death of thousand of poor residents. New Orleans is a city where one does not need a car; most of the poor don’t own them so, by Sunday, they had no way to get out. Days earlier Gov. Blanco should have confiscated every school bus in the state to begin an orderly exodus and request that the air force assist in an evacuation. Instead, she did nothing until Bush suggested she take action.
As a do-nothing Governor, Blanco bares the majority of responsibility; while, Mayor Nagin has simply proven that his is far too paranoid to run a major city. This week, rather then worrying about those dying throughout New Orleans, on two occasions he has told the press that the Central Intelligence Agency is trying to kill him. He told a reporter for the Associated Press: "If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened." He said this prior to telling CNN that, the "CIA might take me out." Clearly this man is mentally ill and should not be allowed to lead New Orleans during this period of crisis.
Now that Gov. Blanco has given Bush the power to deal with this disaster, it is important that he take the immediate action of appointing a leader who can manage this catastrophe and save New Orleans. There is only one man for this job and, love him or hate him, we all know who he is: Rudy Giuliani. According to Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, “Martial law has not been declared anywhere in the United States of America. That keeps continually being erroneously reported.”
If we plan to save New Orleans, then President Bush has a moral responsibility to declare martial law in the state of Louisiana. He should then, promptly, strip both Blanco and Nagin of their power and turn it over to Giuliani as Temporary Military Governor of Louisiana. This would be a similar action to the temporary roles Patton and Macarthur played as Military Governors of Germany and Japan following World War II. With the complete powers of the state and federal governments in the hands of a man with a proven track record for crisis management, New Orleans can be saved and then rebuilt.
Letters to the editor of The Houston Home Journal may be e-mail to:mailto: rgambill@evansnewspapers.com (Please Include Your Name and Location)
William John Hagan can be contacted directly by e-mail at:William_Hagan@excite.com
or he can be visited on the wed at: http://williamjohnhagan.blogspot.com
Good one.
.....:)
LOL!!! Hadn't heard that one!
If we plan to save New Orleans, then President Bush has a moral responsibility to declare martial law in the state of Louisiana. He should then, promptly, strip both Blanco and Nagin of their power and turn it over to Giuliani as Temporary Military Governor of Louisiana.
Nice thought, but it'll never happen. Bush is perfectly happy to play whipping boy.
Plenty of blame to go around, but really, the Mayor and the Governor demonstrated typical liberal compassion and they ought to be impeached.
Maybe the only thing Bush could have done differently is go on TV Friday or Sat and shame the gov to start evacuations. That way she would have had no choice.....
The irony is moonbats are always accusing Bush of being a fascist dictator, blah blah blah. Then they complain when he doesn't act like one.
Blanco
Nagin
Chertoff
Brown
All should be fired.
Also: Drug addled thugs.
When exactly did Blanco call for a mandatory evac?
Blame the French. They're the ones who stuck a city in the middle of a swamp.
I think they started Sunday...but I may be wrong...does anyone know for sure.
Plus, she NEVER had the interstate south bound blocked to all 4 lanes going north....NEVER!!!!
The Leftists would have howled that Bush was bullying Blanco and was trying to seize control of the state of Louisiana in violation of the Constitution (like the Leftists even respect our Constitution...ha!). Bush would have been demonized and Blanco would have been propped up as the victim.
Just like what's happening now.
You're much too kind. Were it up to me, they all would be up on charges of Depraved Indifference to Reckless Endangerment and Reckless Homicide with Intent to Commit Mayhem.
Were it up to me, they'd all be eligible for the needle in Federal Detention.
Katrina? Wasn't there a hurricane there last week?
"Also: Drug addled thugs."
These should be fired AT!
God called. Said He'd take the blame for Katrina if Nagging Nagin would just shut up.
I don't agree. President Bush would have benn vindicated after the levee broke.
I agree with the author. Good article.
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