September 02, 2005

Katrina Blame Game

The levee's haven't even been patched and pundits and media mavens are all playing the blame game. NBC's Tim Russert in the safe (and dry) confines of Washington, D.C. said on Today, "But there appears to have been a significant lack of real preparation for this crisis. Tim Naftali, writing for Slate, blasts the Department of Homeland Security for immediately getting the military into New Orleans to secure the city. He points out that 3,000 soldiers are nearby. Cindy Sheehan goes along with the German Green kook and blames President Bush's environmental policies. President Bush got into it by saying, "the results are not acceptable." He didn't clarified what he meant.

I'm sure there were plenty of screw-ups, and there will be many more as the disaster unfolds. Realize the severity of the situation: an entire American city is in essence gone. Roads into New Orleans are flooded with only big army trucks able to get through. Naftali thinks the 4th Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division is only three hours away, but that's on passable roads.

Most of the blame will be on governments not be prepared. But what does that mean? Should governments have huge warehouses filled with MREs, bottled water, medicine, cots, and blankets at the ready at all times? Where would these warehouses be? Imagine if New Orleans had such supplies on hand in warehouses in the middle of the city. All that stuff would be underwater or looted. Oh, you say, armed guards should be around the warehouses. What if these warehouses were built after Hurricane Betsy passed over the Big Easy in 1965? Then for 40 years warehouses would need to be guarded, restocked, and maintained just in case "the Big One" hit. Imagine what kind of graft and boondoggle that would have turned into in the not-so-pure New Orleans.

There are important questions about DHS' authority over the military in times of emergency. Posse comitatus is something to take seriously. Then there's the question of sheer logistics. Helicopters are useful, but they can't move as much stuff as trucks. You can have piles of relief supplies ready for distribution but if roads are impassable they're not much use. It also doesn't help when anarchy is the norm in parts of New Orleans.

So, please, enough of the blame game. There will plenty of time for that later. Blaming won't get a single person fed or clothed. It won't fix a breeched levee, and it's won't drain a city. People are doing the best they can. Even when that happens bad things occur. Such is the tragic place of Man in the universe. We will (must) look back and learn from our mistakes. Life is a process.

"Bush on Relief Effort: 'Results Not Acceptable'"

UPDATE: Austin Bay has a great international perspective on relief efforts:

We’ve a million people dispossessed and they are suffering. Critics grouse that the response to Katrina’s devestation has been abysmally slow. Compared to what? Slow compared to our expectations is the correct answer. Compared to every other nation on the planet, we’re moving at warp speed to address a natural disaster of extraordinary magnitude.