Losing the "Blame Game"

President Bush has finally, finally, started to begin to commence taking care of the Americans lost and damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Having done so, he wants us all to stop playing the "blame game," by which he apparently means he wants us to concentrate on helping people and not on figuring out why those people remained without help for a week or more, out of food and drink and in dirty water up to their necks. The request comes a little late.

I mean, let's take a moment to consider what happened: For the past several years, George W. Bush's administration has cut funds for natural disaster relief and the Army Corps of Engineers, making it difficult or impossible among other things to repair the New Orleans levee system. This continued despite constant warnings from all quarters as the region's emergency preparedness descended to dangerous levels. President Bush also replaced a highly competent and experienced FEMA chairman with his usual political crony, a man with no experience with disaster preparedness or relief. (See the September 2, 2005 entry.)

In short, he left the Mississippi Delta region wide open to exactly this kind of catastrophe at exactly the time that hurricane seasons grew in force, as he might have known by asking his brother, the governor of Florida. No, of course he didn't cause the hurricane, but he did less than nothing to protect Americans from its predictable and deadly effects, and when it hit his administration sat around claiming its hands were tied because the disaster was Louisiana's responsibility.


Now he wants to sweep the whole thing under the rug as quickly as possible, making sure no one looks for the responsible parties until long past the time such a search could make a difference. Of course that's what he wants.

Tough bananas, Dubya. You'd rather flip us off than acknowledge the least mistake, we know, but you're not getting away with it this time.

Benshlomo says, If you know you're going to lose the "blame game," try not to play.