Another Brit Weighs In

...He from a British paper at least, but here’s…

3 Quotes from...

From the murky water of doubt emerges an uncomfortable truth
--by David Aaronovitch

"My instinctive preference would be the global warming "reaping what they have sown" story. The US, having not ratified Kyoto a few years back, is seeing the consequences of such hubris, and may now be stung into joining the rest of us in slashing carbon emissions. The problem here is that the disaster comes a little too soon to be laid at the door of non-ratification."

"You can’t help wondering whether this omission wasn’t essential — that had they hypothesised a levee failure, it would have called the whole existence of the city into question. After the great Galveston, Texas, hurricane of 1900 the seawalls were built 17ft high and the whole town was raised by something like 8ft. It would have been impossible to do that in New Orleans. So maybe they just didn’t let themselves think just how bad things could be."

"It isn’t the failure to act in New Orleans that is the story here, it’s the sheer, uninsured, uncared for, self-disenfranchised scale of the poverty that lies revealed. It looks like a scene from the Third World because that’s the truth."

Personal Note: I am getting tired of all the blame and pointed fingers being bandied about by editorialists and pundits sitting in nice cushy offices, who, most likely, have never ventured further than their own chair in times of crisis. Or when important national decisions were being made. After all, they're needed right where they are to let us all know what's going on at the front lines, and in the minds of Heads of State. I like Mr. Barnett’s assessment...

"The nature of that bureaucracy is such that you have very specific guidelines to follow for even the most minute tasks. You need approval for just about everything, and the person you need approval from usually needs approval to give you the approval.

"It's not as easy as say, rounding up 4 of your co-workers and saying, "We've got someone at such and such an address, let's go grab her and get her out of there."... "You (as a civilian) don't need "Approved" stamped on 3 different forms before you can run into your neighbor's house and pull them out."

If proper blame is to be applied anywhere, in any given situation, it would stead those finger-pointers a great deal of credibility if they knew enough to even open their mouths...

"..learn the ways of all professions"
--Miyamoto Musashi, 1584-1645

Understanding the way things work, to say nothing of human nature, is a good first step toward assessing and assigning blame responsibly.