George Bush and New Orleans

The situation in New Orleans just keeps getting worse. Every few hours there are fresh reports of violence, anarchy, looting and death. The Federal Government seems unable to respond with the swift decisive action needed to save lives and restore confidence.

I keep thinking of the scene on 9/11 when George Bush sat in a class room reading childrens books after being informed that the USA was under attack. What was reported to be an attempt to show the country that everything was under control just came across as weakness and indecisiveness. Bush was saved by patriotism. Standing in Ground Zero surrounded by firefighters he managed to rally the nation to his side. The last 4 years have been dominated by the War on Terror and the hunt for al-Qaeda which pushed Bush's popularity back up and got him re-elected.

Now the citizens he represents are once again under attack and the old Bush is back. This time there is no external enemy to distract the people. No super-villain plotting the over throw of the worlds last superpower. No patriotic duty. Instead people are dying because of bad management and poor leadership in the face of crisis.

Two facts in particular caught my attention this morning. Firstly the USA has refused assistance from Canada and other countries on apparent national security grounds. What national security grounds? Its not like Canada is going to take advantage of the situation to smuggle an army down to Louisiana and then invade the USA on two fronts. Its just a case of a government not wanting to appear weak and being willing to let its citizens die instead of asking for help. North Korea and Zimbabwe do the same thing.

Secondly the evacuation was halted yesterday when rescue helicopters came under small arms fire and it was decided not to put the emergency agency personnel into harms way. There has been a huge change in 4 years. On September 11th 2001 hundreds of firefighters willingly ran into danger and lost their lives in an attempt to save others. Now after 4 years of Bush led wars that courage has been used up.

They impeached Bill Clinton for lying about an affair with an intern, why don't they do the same to Bush, after all he is screwing with the lives of millions.