Katrina: Other Countries? Where were we?

[Chris_Doane]

So there is a thread asking where the other countries are as far as hurricane support. Other countries? Where the hell were we? Finally today, after 4 days of reeeeeally bad conditions, federal help in the form of Nat’l guard convoys with food and water start flowing in. Areas have literally be reduced the status of third world countries and it took 4 days. People really are dying in the streets. Does this administration plan anything at all? How many days were meteorologists saying one of the biggest storms of all time is coming? Logic would tell you that you’d want to have responders staged and ready to go. OK so that wasn’t done. People asked today “what took you so long?” The answer was something like “oh its hard to get in here.” Well the media hasn’t seemed to have any trouble getting in and they dont have amphibious assualt vehicles or huge trucks with a few feet of ground clearance. Were some of the media there before the storm? Sure. Many more crews, photojournalists and reporters came after the storm hit. There is also the fact that a lot of our Nat’l Guard troops/equipment are in another country at the moment. Did that slow down the response? I dont know, but Im sure it didn’t help. To add insult to serious injury, Bush decides to do a photo op tour of the area today. Of course he miraculously visits one of the few areas where food/water is being handed out. Obviously he can’t visit the bad areas because it would be a huge security risk. Most of the people in the bad areas would probably want to attack him due to the lack of response. Instead of doing the traditional politician tour of the disaster area, why not actually work to get things moving. He doesn’t need to go down there and get on the cameras with local officials telling you what they need. He knows what they need. Those local officials would much rather see his actions than see him. There is so much wrong with the response to this hurricane but the action, or lack of, from the federal gov’t has been simply shameful. This is the “christian-based” administration. Yet where is the christianity? All that loving thy neighbor stuff? Or maybe love thy neighbor once the media coverage gets bad enough? Once the local officials literally scream at you for help? Once the people are so desperate to survive they rove in armed mobs looking for food and water. People on the ground have compared it to conditions in Haiti and the middle east. Mind you this is happening in one of the larger cities in the U.S.A. The biggest super power in the world. And we appear helpless. Four days passed and the help finally started rolling in. You have to wonder how many people died in those four days waiting for help. I never thought I’d long for the days of Sept 11 when Bush only sat on his ass for seven minutes.

[Flybrian]

Nations that we're on a shaky platform with are offering us aid. Think about the cooperation and the opportunity to heal old wounds.

Major powers flood US with offers of aid

By Friday, offers had been received from Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.

- Chicago Tribune

[Sixty8panther]

Hmmm... I was pretty sure Slovakia (Slovak Repulik) would be on there. Good to see my countrymen are stepping up, even if it's a token effort.

[Chris_Doane]

Nations that we're on a shaky platform with are offering us aid. Think about the cooperation and the opportunity to heal old wounds.

Major powers flood US with offers of aid

- Chicago Tribune

[post="8773"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

It is amazing they are all offering support given our foreign policy lately. I wonder if this administration will be too proud to accept it.

[Flybrian]

Here's the thing about preparedness. If this were 1995, 1998, 2000, even September 10th, 2001, I would have to say, "Geez. This is bad. And we could've done better probably. But we had no way of dealing with this at all."

But after the WTC attacks and four years of rhetoric from the White House and Homeland Security about how we've been putting our best resources to work designing plans to use in times of a massive terrorist attack and the ensuing aftermath, THIS is the best we could do? Absolutely pathetic.

I'm not talking about the dikes and levees that Army Corps of Engineers have spent decades trying to improve. I'm not even talking about the inherent belief that the hurricane certainly wouldn't be that bad. I'm talking about the ass-backwards, bumbled evacuation procedures.

Where are the guardsmen?
Where are the police?
Where are the supplies?
Where are the buses and trucks?

If you want to, you can extrapolate Katrina to be a simulated terrorist attack drill, one that we failed miserably.

I agree also about the photo-op. What malarky. I love this quote, by the way.
"We're gonna clean all this mess up...with money!"
:blink:
Where's that standing-on-the-rubble-with-a-bullhorn leadership now? As Jesse Jackson, Jr. said, "The response in Iraq was Shock and Awe; in New Orleans, the response is Shockingly Awful."