KATRINA: Are we sweeping leadership accountability under the carpet?

There have been extraordinary deeds done in recent days for the Katrina recovery effort. We all want this tragedy and its heartbreak and heartache to be comforted with the kind of care and know-how we are witnessing. We all want the lives to be restored.

However, with each passing day, it is clear that the BUSH administration is working, admittedly on "damage control" to avoid and scapegoat BUSH's own personal behavior, actions and inaction. With every new set of photo ops with the president, we seem to be systematically "sweeping the leadership accountability under the carpet."

What is undeniable is that on his watch as President, leader of the free world ---- countless lives were needlessly lost (apparently over 70 in just the last few days that drown in their beds at hospitals); our citizens were abused without water and food and the first response by FEMA was without question incompetent. It is a good move that Michael Brown resigned, but lets not forget that it was President BUSH that put our citizens and our country at risk, hiring Michael Brown in a critical role without qualifications. It is President BUSH that has given us a false sense of security. He did this in his 2005 state of the union address:

"In the three and a half years since September the 11th, 2001, we have taken unprecedented actions to protect Americans. We've created a new department of government to defend our homeland, focused the FBI on preventing terrorism, begun to reform our intelligence agencies, broken up terror cells across the country, expanded research on defenses against biological and chemical attack, improved border security, and trained more than a half-million first responders. Police and firefighters, air marshals, researchers, and so many others are working every day to make our homeland safer, and we thank them all."

When the levees broke in New Orleans, we had a chance to see for ourselves how prepared and safe we are under BUSH leadership. It needs no investigation. We saw it clearly. This was not a sudden, unexpected attack. This one we got three days notice and BUSH and his leadership team still proved we are not prepared and they were caught "asleep at the switch" as leaders. They watched people dying without food and water as we all did and waited a week to respond.

AN ANALOGY TO CONSIDER:
In a way BUSH has been driving drunk, intoxicated with his power and obviously not thinking of the best interest of US citizens or he wouldn't have hired his unqualified friend to keep us safe as the head of FEMA. If BUSH were an effective leader, he would have known we were prepared, not been caught off-guard that we weren't. While BUSH has been driving drunk in his role as president, he has been able to slip away from being accountable for anything ---- lying, lives loss, unjust wars, stuffing Halliburton's pockets, big deficits, gas prices ---- his decisions, action and inaction related to the first response to the Katrina Hurricane this time were exposed to the world and resulted in killing countless citizens and abusing the innocent with days without food and water and indignities that have no excuse. By law, if he were driving drunk and caused an accident with such deaths involved, he would be arrested and charged with negligent manslaughter at a minimum. Yet, when we look at Katrina, so many want to just sweep his behavior under the carpet without accountability. So many obviously are moved by the staged photo ops, the vibrant military personalities, the boastful commentary of self-congratulations.

This kind of denial is what happens with drunks. I've experienced this tragedy in my own life. When a drunk is sober they want you to forget what damage has been done. They want to pretend it didn't happen---a "black-out" of sorts. They get real self-righteous. This is also true with abusers. The problem is that when you keep sweeping a problem under the carpet, at some point you trip on it. With Katrina, we all just tripped on it.

Any thoughts?

Debbe Kennedy

Comments

[Aaron]

I agree that the President holds some responsiblity for any failures in the Federal Relief effort. The problem I have with people like you and with columns like this is that your assesment of what his duties and responsibilites were are dead wrong. Take your remark about the 70 who perished in the hospital, maybe we should hold hospital officials, local officials and state officials accountable before we hold federal officials accountable. Isn't that reasonable? It almost sounds like you wanted the President himself to go carry them out of the hospital. Evacuations needed to take place before the storm hit and besides that, the federal government is not a first responder!

[jmcmaster]

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report Tuesday afternoon asserting that Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government. Maybe you should form your own opinions, not the points of the day.

[debbe kennedy]

I don't think president BUSH is responsible for everything. What he is responsible for is ensuring this nation is secure. He is the CEO and he unfortunately and his personal poor judgments (nothing more) is what he should be held to account. People left dying without food and water was due to FEMA's incompetence. All indicators are that he filled 5 key positions with incompetence. He is accountable for those decisions and the implications as a CEO, I believe. If not, I've missed something.

Hey, Aaron, no need to call me a "person like that" I'm just trying to figure things out like you. :-)

Debbe