Katrina's Devastating Direction, Bush's Devastating Non-Direction

When Americans see the devastation in New Orleans, of floating corpses and utter lawlessness one can’t blame them for being shit-pissed off with President Bush. We are talking about the most powerful richest nation in the world, with the mightiest army, navy and air force the world has ever seen, yet innocent urvivors of Hurricane Katrina now have to wrestle with diseases, thirst, hunger, rape, murder and mobs of angry feral criminals on the loose. Looting is the least of their worries.

The Americans may not realise it yet but the horrendous scene they are witnessing in their own backyards are typical of what people in faraway land like Fallujah, Iraq suffered as a result of Hurricane Pax Americana. Mind you. most of the victims are black Americans or in modern terminology, African Americans.

In the same way that US troops have been given shoot-to-kill orders in occupied territories, the same order applies in devastated New Orleans and other affected areas.

The death toll is still being guessed at. No one knows how many have been killed in the devastation.

Terry Ebbert, the head of emergency operations in New Orleans condemned the Federal Emergency Management Agency which still doesn’t have any sense of command and control after 3 days of being set up. No command and control means no direction or effectiveness in the emergency operations.

While Americans do have experience dealing with hurricanes and floods, the magnitude of what faces them in the wake of Hurricane Katrina must have left the top brass staggering.

Ebbert complained “We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

Well, that’s why I have always averred that the UN is the best body for such catastrophe because of its unique experience dealing with calamities all over the world. It may not be a perfect organization but warts and all, it still has oozes of experience dealing with such devastation of incomprehensible dimension.

Daniel Edwards, a 47-year-old victim, said "You can do everything for other countries but you can't do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military but you can't get them down here."

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on the world to help the USA in its moment of dire needs. I think it’s wonderful if everyone can chip in. Forget about Bush and the bloody neo-coons. Think of needy Americans, think of their magnificent generosity when the world needs aid, think Sandra Bullock, etc.