Your open letter to the President makes a strong statement about the outrage
being visited upon the city of New Orleans by the Federal Government, but
in simply calling for George Bush to fire Michael Brown and other officials
at FEMA, it doesn't go nearly far enough.
It was George Bush who, as the hurricane approached New Orleans on Monday,
delivered an 85-paragraph speech on Medicare and managed to devote just
two paragraphs of that speech to Katrina. Instead of spending his time planning
for disaster relief before the storm hit, he was out giving political
speeches, and graciously informing the citizens of New Orleans that he would
pray for you. Astonishingly, he even disclosed in that speech that he had
just spoken with Michael Chertoff, head of the Department of Homeland Security...about
immigration!
It was George Bush who, on Tuesday, as the hurricane hit and hundreds were
already dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, found time to travel to San
Diego and deliver a 91-paragraph speech, yet another political exercise
making a preposterous analogy between the so-called war on terror and the
World War II fight against Japan. He managed this time, after the hurricane
had hit (!), to squeeze in a grand total of two paragraphs to discussing
Katrina. At that very time, another President, the President of Cuba, was
sufficiently aware of the disaster in the Gulf that he had contacted the
U.S. State Department and offered to send on a moment's notice 1100 fully
self-sufficient doctors, carrying not only medicines but even their own
food and water. Our President...spent time playing with his spiffy new guitar
with a Presidential seal.
The next day, one day after that generous and potentially life saving offer
from Fidel Castro, on a day when those Cuban doctors could have already
been in place saving lives, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was still
on vacation in New York, spending several thousand dollars on shoes. To
this day, although there are still people dying in the streets (and even
in the understaffed temporary hospital set up at the airport) of New Orleans,
Rice has still not responded to that offer.
As for Dick Cheney, he's still on vacation, having done (if that is possible)
even less than George Bush.
And, I'm sure I don't need to point out to you, it was not only Bush and
Rice, but Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the key people in this administration,
who were responsible for the lies which justified the invasion of Iraq,
not to mention the decision to do so, a decision which has not only cost
the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans, but
also nearly $300 billion. As the Times-Picayune well knows, some of that
money should have been used to shore up the levees in New Orleans, but was
denied because of the urgent need to fight an unjustified, illegal war.
And, as you also well know, it was that decision which resulted in thousands
of Louisiana and Mississippi National Guardsmen being halfway around the
world fighting that war, instead of at home ready to deal with the effects
of crises at home like they signed up to do. And not only were a signficant
portion of the Guard not available in a timely manner, but there aren't
as many of them in the first place as there should be either, because that
same war has discouraged more people from joining the Guard.
FEMA has certainly proven completely incompetent in managing the response
to this disaster. But who appointed the incompetent, completely unqualified
Michael Brown to his position as head of FEMA? George Bush, of course,
doing what he always does - rewarding a political ally (the college roommate
of his 2000 campaign manager, and no doubt a major contributor as well),
rather than seeking the best qualified person for the job.
There is only one solution to the nightmare enveloping our country, and
it doesn't start with FEMA. It starts with the Administration which appointed
the head of FEMA, which starved New Orleans of the money it needed to
reinforce its levees long before Katrina hit, which sent vitally needed
National Guard to Iraq where they could be of no help when Katrina hit,
and which exhibited callous, criminal indifference to the plight of New
Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast before it finally sprang, or rather
crept, into action.
George Bush and his entire Administration -- Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
Condoleezza Rice, Michael Chertoff, Michael Brown, and everyone else who
bares responsibility for that criminal behavior -- should resign. Today.
In countless other countries around the world, any decent official responsible
for such a disaster would have fallen on their sword - figuratively, and
even literally in a few cases. We don't need them to go that far, although
later, charging them as accessories to the murder of hundreds or thousands
of residents of New Orleans would not be inappropriate. But at this time,
their responsibility is far too deep, and far too obvious, to call for
the usual round of Congressional hearings and mild recriminations. They
must resign. Now.
