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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Losing New Orleans..

My heart & soul has been so heavy over the loss of New Orleans. To see women & babies on a 97 degree tarmac, without food, water or hope.. for 2 days (now 3) takes a big chunk of my belief in humanity away. To see an old woman stop a police car & tell them her husband has just dropped dead at her feet, & have them tell her, 'Just roll him out of the way, before he starts stinking' removes another shred of my belief in human decency. To watch looters running rampant (& to see that some of them are law officers themselves), when our state national guardsmen are off protecting an oil field, sours me on the belief of our country's ability to care for one another. To know part of this extreme damage was preventable.. sickens me to my cellular level.
Perhaps Paul Craig Roberts says it better..
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September 1, 2005
How New Orleans Was Lost

by Paul Craig Roberts
Chalk up the city of New Orleans as a cost of Bush's Iraq war.

There were not enough helicopters to repair the breached levees and rescue people trapped by rising water. Nor are there enough Louisiana National Guardsmen available to help with rescue efforts and to patrol against looting.

The situation is the same in Mississippi.

The National Guard and helicopters are off on a fool's mission in Iraq.

The National Guard is in Iraq because fanatical neoconservatives in the Bush administration were determined to invade the Middle East and because incompetent Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld refused to listen to the generals, who told him there were not enough regular troops available to do the job.

After the invasion, the arrogant Rumsfeld found out that the generals were right. The National Guard was called up to fill in the gaping gaps.

Now the Guardsmen, trapped in the Iraqi quagmire, are watching on TV the families they left behind trapped by rising waters and wondering if the floating bodies are family members. None know where their dislocated families are, but, shades of Fallujah, they do see their destroyed homes.

The mayor of New Orleans was counting on helicopters to put in place massive sandbags to repair the levee. However, someone called the few helicopters away to rescue people from rooftops. The rising water overwhelmed the massive pumping stations, and New Orleans disappeared under deep water.

What a terrible casualty of the Iraqi war – one of our oldest and most beautiful cities, a famous city, a historic city.

Distracted by its phony war on terrorism, the U.S. government had made no preparations in the event Hurricane Katrina brought catastrophe to New Orleans. No contingency plan existed. Only now after the disaster are FEMA and the Corps of Engineers trying to assemble the material and equipment to save New Orleans from the fate of Atlantis.

Even worse, articles in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and public statements by emergency management chiefs in New Orleans make it clear that the Bush administration slashed the funding for the Corps of Engineers' projects to strengthen and raise the New Orleans levees and diverted the money to the Iraq war.

Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune (June 8, 2004): "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Why can't the U.S. government focus on America's needs and leave other countries alone? Why are American troops in Iraq instead of protecting our own borders from a mass invasion by illegal immigrants? Why are American helicopters blowing up Iraqi homes instead of saving American homes in New Orleans?

How can the Bush administration be so incompetent as to expose Americans at home to dire risks by exhausting American resources in foolish foreign adventures? What kind of "homeland security" is this?

All Bush has achieved by invading Iraq is to kill and wound thousands of people while destroying America's reputation. The only beneficiaries are oil companies capitalizing on a good excuse to jack up the price of gasoline and Osama bin Laden's recruitment.

What we have is a Republican war for oil company profits while New Orleans sinks beneath the waters.

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Comments:
Sooooo sad!!! All of this is so sad!

I just cannot understand how anyone can be "okay" with what's going on in the White House right now. This is a mess, and it's corrupt and greedy to the very core.

Perhaps we can chalk up New Orleans as "collateral damage" along with the near 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians.
 
I only read my news - perhaps it's time to start watching. I think actually *seeing* what's going on down there will bring me to a whole new level of awareness and sympathy.

Good lord, I hope these people find some relief.
 
I feel like such a heel after reading my post . I did take time to watch the news last night. And all I could do was cry . I wish I could think of a way to help. My heart does go out to all those people. I just pray they can stay strong and unite togather.
I just want to take a min. to tell you I love you and I cherish your words of encouragement. Thank you. I hope you have all the peace and enery to sustain you yhruogh your move.....
 
Well thank you my sweet Hippigirl, I appreciate all you say & do.
Right now, we are wading thru the reams of paperwork. It looks like it won't close today, because the lender is getting into the 'repair' end of the deal.. more paperwork!
You know.. I just want to get to TN, sit on my front porch.. maybe put in a little 'still'..ha
Just kidding.
Soon.. very soon..

And yes, Princess & Miss World.. watching the woman w/ 29 day old twins in a single little baby carrier & hearing her say they'd had no formula or diapers for 2 days. Dear God. People are dying in their wheelchairs, & they just throw a plastic tarp over them.
Some people have thrown themselves to their deaths off the broken bridge.. too much to bear.
This isn't like 9-11, where the survivors could go to an intact home in their own city. These are refugees w/o homes, a way out, jobs, or even the basics. It's unbelievable.
 
I just read an article where Norway is criticizing (sounds like a harsh term - I can't think of anything softer, sorry) us for not having better levees in place. Apparently a good portion of Norway is under sea level, too - they had a storm a few decades ago, didn't sustain too much trauma, but realized their system was out-dated if a true storm ever hit. They spent oodles of money on hydraulic sea walls, etc. They are wondering why the US wouldn't have done the same.

So many "what ifs" out there. I can only hope that from this tragedy, scores of others are PREVENTED.

God, how sad! Sande, you relaying these stories is breaking my heart. I can't even comprehend it - I can't even wrap my brain around what's going on.
 
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