Katrina: Massive Incompetence

I have been listening with horror to the reports of the worsening human tragedy in New Orleans.  Those residents who were too poor or too ill to evacuate the city ahead of the hurricane are suffering in the Superdome: a reporter for CNN has seen numerous dead bodies in the facility as the people wait in vain – withour food and water – for some kind of assistance.  Meanwhile the BBC is reporting the following words spoken today by President Bush:

"I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we’re having to deal with it and will," he said.

But of course Bush is lying: plenty of people anticipated the breach of the levees as the Chicago Tribune reports:

Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly denied full funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.

A number of jounalists have noted that there is a connection between the Iraq War and the dimension of the tragedy from Hurricane Katrina, including some observers in Germany:

Schon verbreiteten die oppositionellen Demokraten einen Artikel des Medienmagazins "Editor & Publisher", in dem es hieß, der Deichschutz von New Orleans sei den Kosten für den Krieg im Irak, den Heimatschutz und den Steuersenkungen zum Opfer gefallen.

"Wenn die Amerikaner erfahren, dass die Dämme wegen des Krieges im Irak nicht verstärkt wurden, werden sie nicht glücklich sein", sagt Chris Kofinis, ein Berater der Demokratischen Partei in Washington.

And today’s taz points out that the inadequate response to the destruction of the infrastructure is the result of the National Guard reserve forces deployment in Iraq:

Die zerstörte Infrastruktur stellt jedoch das größte Hindernis für die Hilfsaktionen dar. Deshalb hat der Wiederaufbau von Straßen, Brücken und Flughäfen oberste Priorität. Hierbei sollen logistische Einheiten der Armee aushelfen. Doch den Streitkräften mangelt es an Ausrüstung und Personal. Vor allem die sonst für solche Einsätze herangezogene Nationalgarde ist längst an ihre Kapazitätsgrenzen gestoßen – viele ihrer Einheiten sind derzeit im Irak

I agree with blogger Bob Harris that New Orleans is a casualty of the war in Iraq.  But when will Americans get the leadership they need in this catastrophe?