The humbling of a superpower By The Daily Mail
09/02/05 "Daily Mail" -- -- Like some lurid scene from an apocalyptic disaster movie, a world famous city is overwhelmed by the awesome forces of nature. Familiar landmarks lie half-submerged in a toxic swamp of polluted water. Thousands are feared dead. Images of desperate people smashing through the roofs of their homes to escape the floods fill our TV screens. But this is no Hollywood blockbuster. This is New Orleans today. The most exotic, un-American corner of the United States has fallen victim to a cataclysm that almost defies belief. A city the size of Sheffield will soon be lying completely empty, its residents fled, evacuated, or drowned. While Washington struggles to respond to the storm that has humbled the most powerful nation on the planet, we should perhaps reflect on how quickly the thin veneer of civilisation can be stripped away. The city's mayor has to order 1500 police officers to stop searching for survivors and instead combat looting&a police food lorry is ransacked while its crew is shot at by an armed gang&even a rescue helicopter comes under fire. Meanwhile, four days after Hurricane Katrina, the federal Government is still struggling to come up with a viable rescue and recovery plan. Perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised. George Bush, so decisive when it came to launching an illegal war on Iraq, froze like a rabbit in the headlamps. It was more than two days after Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans before he cut short his month long holiday - as overwhelmed state authorities struggled to cope. Now back in Washington, the President finds his reckless adventure in Iraq coming back to haunt him. The National Guard, the part-time soldiers whose prime role is to provide emergency services in natural disasters, have in large part been deployed overseas. Five thousand members of the Louisiana National Guard who should be spearheading the rescue effort watch the disaster unfold from their HQ - Camp Liberty, west of Baghdad. Equipment that could have been so valuable in the rescue operations is parked in depots there. The same is happening across all the neighbouring states, leaving Washington bereft of vital manpower as it grapples with the greatest homeland crisis in memory. Here is a superpower that can crush at will a tinpot dictatorship - but then becomes so bogged down in the grisly aftermath of war that it finds itself unable to respond anything like adequately to the plight of tens of thousands of its own citizens engulfed by a natural calamity. President Bush, his ratings already in free-fall, could pay a high price indeed for his military folly. ©2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd · ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of Hidayahnet unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from Hidayahnet, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hidayahnet/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
