Tuesday, September 06, 2005
BUSH CAUSE OF ALL MISERY
Last night’s Lateline trashed George W. Bush’s hurricane performance:
TONY JONES: Even more astonishing, wouldn’t you think, that President Bush himself claimed only last Thursday that “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees” - when of course that’s what was being anticipated by the disaster planners all over the country.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Absolutely. It’s one of the two or three best-known risks to the United States, is that the levees protecting New Orleans could break. I know that and I live in Washington. It’s also, I’m afraid to say, the only thing the President has said about this that anyone can remember.
“How could the US Government not have seen this coming?” asked Lateline reporter Norman Hermant:
For decades there were consistent warnings. Three years ago in a front page series, the New Orleans ‘Times-Picayune’ spelled out what would happen if the levees burst: “Amid this maelstrom, the estimated 200,000 or more people left behind in an evacuation will be struggling to survive. Some will be housed at the Superdome, the designated too sick or infirm to leave city. Others will end up in last-minute emergency refuges that will offer minimal safety. But many will simply be on their own, in homes or looking for high ground. Thousands will drown while trapped in homes or cars by rising water. Others will be washed away or crushed by debris. Survivors will end up trapped on roofs, in buildings or on high ground surrounded by water, with no means of escape and little food or fresh water, perhaps for several days.” That is exactly what happened. And despite years of warnings and disaster models the response was painfully slow, and confused.
True enough. Yet Bush has support from an unexpected source:
When you say that they should have done this, that or the other thing first, you can look at that problem in isolation, and you can say that.
But look at all the other things they had to deal with. I’m telling you, nobody thought this was going to happen like this. But what happened here is they escaped—New Orleans escaped Katrina. But it brought all the water up the Mississippi River and all into Pontchartrain, and then when it started running and that levee broke, they had problems they never could have foreseen.
The speaker? Bill Clinton. Hitchens, by the way, doesn’t seem to have been following events very closely:
It can’t be long before Pat Robertson or someone says that this is a punishment for homosexuality or abortion or something of the kind. Can’t believe he hasn’t said it yet.
Days ago, Hitch. Days ago!
(Via Jeffrey Wheeler in Memphis, who has a terrific Katrina wrap-up)