Iraq, 9-11, and Louisiana

Bungling. This is how empires fall apart.

Supposedly everything was solved after 9-11. Iraq showed us how easily Americans take the bait. New Orleans shows us how easily they believe in illusions in their own basements, attics, and canals.

Americans are a curious lot: They're quick to create distractions, then smear those who refuse to join the mindless chorus.

The President is a sophisticated politician, knowing not to make fatal admissions. Yet, after New Orleans flooded, the President ably advised by counsel clearly stated he wasn't satisfied with the results of the Federal government.

The President wants to investigate himself. Congress, to avoid being called "political," assents.

The President has a role in overseeing the process, not something he can explain away. Two days prior to the flood, the President agreed to declare a federal emergency.

This means the governor and he communicated; how effectively the President and local government coordinated their actions remains a matter of law and facts for the court, public, and legislature to decide.

Audits reported problems at all levels in local, state, and federal government. Where was the leadership in getting better oversight of those troubled institutions?

Woe to those in government who decry an open media. Where Congress and the leadership failed to ask questions, the media remains one of the institutions that helped fill the communication holes in the leadership vacuum. Now we know the truth.

Iraq is illustrative. We're asked to believe that things are doing well, but this is when the media is targeted, silenced.

We see what happens when the media in New Orleans has free reign. Are we to believe that the Iraqis are getting better organization, leadership, and results than Americans?

America doesn't have enough combat troops in Iraq, taking national guardsmen from the states. Now, there aren't enough national guardsmen, so they take troops from the active duty forces. So much for the "high priority" in Iraq.

Yes, this is what Iraqis and Gulf Coast residents can look forward to when talking about the "benefit" of democracy: Lengthy, slipping timelines to complete efforts; and plenty of distractions to justify otherwise.

How will the municipal bonds get financed without citizens paying taxes? They wave their hands. It's taken four years since 9-11 to decide what to do with a single hole in the ground. The flood and hurricane are magnitudes larger, the waste far more pervasive.

Where does America get its relief workers? It dispatches them with little training. Some of the evacuees are more emotionally stable than the new recruits charged with providing comfort.

When things are this goofy, watch your wallet. Those unable to make it when things were going well, will tell fanciful tales.

The convoys continue to deliver the Emperor's New Clothes, and Santa has yet to awaken from his coma. He'll find more fractures in the American Empire. Rome fell because the Romans no longer cared. America continues to exhaust its goodwill.

Unlike FDR following Pearl Harbor, Bush failed to mobilize the nation following 9-11. Bush will fail to use the flood and hurricane as the needed catalyst to reform at home.

The American Empire requires that catalyst of a greater disaster for there to be real leadership, reform, and mobilization. The needed catalyst has already overwhelmed the system, and the required catalyst could prove fatal.

Interesting

USA Today editorial talks about the well known problems in FEMA. Guess who was in charge? President Bush, and the same crew that messed up during 9-11.