Bush Must Resign!

Nero fiddled whilst Rome burned. George Bush golfed whilst New Orleans flooded and the Gulf Coast was destroyed. Nero offered no excuses. Now the Bush spin machine is trying to dodge accountability. After Hurricane Katrina cleared the Gulf Coast Region, it the federal response to the greatest humanitarian disaster in United States history was woefully inadequate for 5 days. Three days after the hurricane the President gave us a laundry list of aid. On the face of it the 7,000,000 prepared meals and 15,000 tarps and however many gallons of water sounds impressive. Yet none of this reached the thousands who have not seen food, water or shelter for 5 days. Could this have reached the area sooner if 35% of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard was deployed in Iraq. It took 5 days to deploy the New Mexico National Guard to the region due to Federal Government red tape. Meanwhile, the lack of these basic needs led directly to death, with people reported to have died while waiting for relief outside the Morial Convention Center. This is the type of humanitarian disaster associated with governmental neglect in places like Niger and Sudan. The American people should not tolerate this at home.

In an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America on Thursday September 1st, 72 hours after Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast region, Bush said, “I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” Meanwhile White House press secretary Scott McLennan suggested the same day that the destruction in Gulfport and Biloxi was caused by wind! This displays a complete lack of understanding of the situation, a lack of caring, and a complete detachment from reality in this administration. Perhaps if he had spent some time on Tuesday watching one of the many documentaries on the vulnerability of New Orleans (we know he doesn’t read the paper, so the myriad newspaper articles would be worthless to him) instead of flying to Arizona to play golf he may have been better informed.

Following the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA assessed the greatest risks—both natural and terrorist—to the United States; they identified a catastrophic hurricane hitting New Orleans as the most significant danger. Last year FEMA war-gamed this. Yet Bush says we could not have anticipated a breach in the levees. Does he not realize that the risk associated with a hurricane hitting New Orleans isn’t wind or rain, but breaches in the levee. The administration continues to maintain that the hurricane and the breach of the levees were discrete events. It was a coincidence that levees in New Orleans gave way 12 hours after the storm?

If the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama could see what was going on they would be even angrier than they are already. They deserve better leadership, and more importantly, support. How many people have died as a direct result of the paucity of the federal response?

The White House spin machine hides behind the “this is not the time” for politics mantra. This is not a matter of politics, this is a matter of saving lives and restoring basic human dignity to hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens. If Bush’s constituents in the southern states and the rest of us are to recover from this catastrophe there needs to be accountability. Bush needs to step aside and a competent caring leadership installed in his place if the South is to recover. If Bush is too arrogant to step down, Congress needs to begin drafting articles of impeachment to address this President’s criminal negligence.