It's far too easy to point fingers at people in a situation like this. Nobody expected this to need 40,000 troops on the ground just to deal with the rampant looting and criminal activity. To compare this with the war is just looking for another way to embarrass people in charge who have an enormous job to do. I'm not a fan of the Bush administration, but this is doesn't have anything to do with the Bush administration, which is the underlying point of her remarks.
I watched Diane Sawyer's interview with GWB yesterday morning and Ted Koppel's interview with the head of FEMA last night. Neither of these interviews were meant to provide the public with really useful information - rather, they were asking questions that were unanswerable and purposefully meant to make these people look as bad as possible. Here's a paraphrased snippet: TK: "We've heard reports from FEMA that there are 5000 people at the convention center. We have reporters on the ground who estimate 15000. How many people are in the Convention Center?" FEMA: "I sent General XXXX in to estimate the people there. His estimate was 25000." TK: "We've been reporting these kinds of numbers for day now. Aren't your people watching the news???" FEMA (angrily but cool): "No Ted, we haven't had time to watch the news. We're too busy trying to save lives." I think ANYONE who thinks that we're moving too slow and not doing everything we can is deluded as to what can be done in a situation like this. It's an incredible thing which happens only once every thousand years or so, so it's just not possible to be prepared for this. It's so classic to blame the people who are trying to help as not doing enough for you. There's never any responsibility to be taken for these people not getting out of the city. True, there are thousands of poor, but instead of waiting to be rescued as calmly as possible, they've created a situation that makes it impossible to rescue them. Looters, shooters, rapists, killers - this is a situation of their own making, nothing that the federal, state, or local governments can do could have prevented that. Matthew Small ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| All-in-one: antivirus, antispam, firewall for your PC and PDA. Buy Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=60 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:172364 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
