Would've, Could've, Should've
 

September 7 2005
Counterbias.com
Doug Griffin
T E X A N   F O R   T R U T H

Like any other human being with a soul, I am saddened by the carnage left in Hurricane Katrina’s wake. My heart goes out to the countless victims ravaged by this natural disaster and I urge everyone to donate what you can – if not money, then donate time. The Red Cross needs volunteers for a variety of services. Like any American with any shred of national pride, I am outraged that aid to the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama has taken as long as it has to get to there.

This is the United States of America. We can order the bombing of a specific building in Iraq in the course of hours. We can get aid to tsunami victims across the globe in as little as two days. Goddamn it, why does it take nearly a week for us to help our own right here?

The finger pointing in this matter started almost as soon as we first learned of the damage and casualty reports. As someone who has been extremely hard on the mainstream media over the past couple of years, I have to say, “Thank you” for the unvarnished coverage I have seen up to now.

We can sit back and say they should’ve evacuated earlier. We can armchair administrate New Orleans’ Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and wonder why those who didn’t choose to stay behind, but had no means of leaving, weren’t provided a way out by the city. Well, the National Guard of Louisiana might have been a means, but I think they’re in Iraq. Also, evacuations cost money. Providing those without means of leaving costs money. Anyone who has gone to public school in the U.S. has done a few fire drills in their lifetime. I’ve even done them in places of employment since being out of school. And they cost money (particularly in productivity)… and they take planning. Evacuating a town the size of Point Blank, Texas (population 400+) wouldn’t be an easy undertaking, let alone a city the size of New Orleans. This is exacerbated by the fact that the budget for planning for an event such as a category 5 hurricane and evacuation of the citizens in its path was significantly cut by 44%.

As I stated, it takes money to plan such a massive undertaking and if your budget – which would include planning – is significantly cut… well we’re seeing what happens when this occurs.

Point fingers in the Right(‘s) direction, as CNN’s Anderson Cooper and many others have – at the federal government. Our “little Nero” strummed while the Gulf Coast drowned. The lame excuse of not being able to foresee this catastrophe is 100% bullshit. In fact, those in charge of planning for such a disaster warned of the exact events that occurred. Just like our government knew the World Trade Center was  a popular target for terrorist attack and that contrary to Condoleeza Rice’s assertions, it was predictable that airliners would be used as missiles. I suppose with Republican fuzzy math, 2+2 does not equal 4.

I believe Mayor Nagin would’ve accomplished more had he been able to. I believe the National Guard could’ve been able to avert many of the casualties had they been stateside. And I believe the neo con artists should’ve looked at more than potential dollar signs: i.e. stealing oil revenues from Iraq. But hey, tax cuts for the wealthy were more important. Waging an illegal war was more important. We’ll probably use this as an excuse to bomb Venezuela, to fight the hurricanes there, so we don’t have to fight them here.