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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: illyia who wrote (170460)	9/2/2005 9:50:10 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Our best hope is for Patrick Fitzgerald to not be shy and really go after Rove and ALL OTHERS way up the food chain who may be involved in the CIA LeakGate Scandal...We need some indictments - in the next month...I would love to see Bush, Cheney and Rove indicted...It would be healthy for our country to go through a leadership change...The country can't start to heal before this happens. -s2@JustMyView.com

To: illyia who wrote (170460)	9/3/2005 5:49:06 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Why Was the United States Taken by Surprise? _______________________________________________________ By Fabrice Rousselot Libération Friday 02 September 2005 President Bush is criticized for failing to take the measure of the disaster. Between now and the weekend, 30,000 soldiers and reservists will be deployed in the southern United States to intervene in the region affected by Katrina. George W. Bush announced it - four days after the hurricane's passage. The American federal government, like that of the state of Louisiana, seems to have been totally taken by surprise at the scope of the catastrophe. The president himself acknowledged that it would take "several years" before the region recovered from this tempest. Why do America and its president find themselves defenseless against an event that was, after all, predictable? Answers. Did Bush react in time? Katrina puts the American President Bush on the defensive as he is attacked on all sides for failing to take the measure of the disaster. "And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday [Wednesday]- which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis," deemed the New York Times in a scathing editorial entitled, "Waiting for a Leader." "I hope people aren't going to do partisan politics during this period," said Bush, attempting to defend himself on ABC. The White House announced that the president would go to the site today, four days after Katrina's passage. For George W. Bush, at his lowest in the polls with a record 53% rate of disapproval for his policies, Katrina could have been a good opportunity to prove that he is a good leader in times of crisis. USA Today has already reproached the White house for its "obviously improvised reaction" the day after the storm. Yet, during a televised debate with Al Gore, his rival in 2000, Bush asserted that natural catastrophes "were an opportunity for a president to show what metal he is made of ..." Was there an inaccurate evaluation of the hurricane? Three days before Katrina touched the American coast, meteorologists had warned: the hurricane was one of the most ferocious of recent years. For close to twenty-four hours, the experts thought that the tempest was going to strike New Orleans head on. But finally, it deviated toward the east, which took everyone by surprise. Especially surprising, after having lost some of its intensity, Katrina increased in force before dissolving over Mississippi and Alabama. In Louisiana, the order was given to totally evacuate New Orleans. The only problem: those who departed were the ones who had the means to do so, that is, a car: 20% of the city's residents stayed behind. The Problem of the Levees The dikes (levees) put in place in Louisiana to protect the coastal region situated below sea-level were designed to withstand at maximum Category 3 hurricanes. Katrina was a Level 4 storm. Result: one of the Lake Pontchartrain levees buckled under the hurricane's fury and the rising waters opened a more than 60 meter wide breach. After the tempest's passage, the water level in the city continued to rise. Today, 80% of it is under water. "It's not the storm itself that was the main worry, but the water that rushed in after the levee broke," confirms David Prevatt, a professor who specializes in hurricanes at Clemson University in South Carolina. "We could have built stronger dikes in Louisiana a long time ago, but it's a money problem more than anything. More than 50% of the American population lives in coastal regions susceptible to hurricanes, but no one wants to use their resources to supply adequate protection. The fault lies with the Federal government as well as with local authorities." The Controversy over the Lack of Resources Has the deployment of many National Guard units in Iraq and Afghanistan harmed rescue operations and the maintenance of order in the southern United States? "Not at all; it's ridiculous!" responded one Bush advisor. Yet 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard and 3,800 members of the Mississippi National Guard are in Iraq today, which deprives these two states of 40% of their National Guard manpower. On August 1, during a news broadcast on a local ABC channel, the Louisiana National Guard complained about having its equipment mobilized for Iraq, deeming that it could cause problems in case of natural catastrophe. In that broadcast, a transcription of which has been reviewed by Libération, Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider regretted that dozens of amphibious vehicles, Humvees, and other rapid intervention materiel had been sent to Iraq. "We need this equipment in the United States to tackle any problems at home," he added ... ______________________ Translation: t r u t h o u t French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher. ------- truthout.org