PlanetGordon.com

More Thoughts

I'm sorry to keep harping on the hurricane and floods, but it's hard to not think about something so tragic happening in a city so recognizable. One question has been nagging my brain all week: what if instead of having been flooded, a major U.S. city had been hit by a dirty bomb which contaminated drinking water, killed hundreds of people and rendered 80% of the city unlivable and virtually inaccessible? If this is how the government responds to a crisis that was the predictable result of a category 4 hurricane striking a city that lies below sea level, how would it respond to a terrorist attack that gives no warning whatsoever? As far as I know, Al Qaeda doesn't usually phone in reports to the Weather Channel.

What have all of the cabinet-level departments been doing in the four years since 9/11? Could no one have conceived that even with many warnings to evacuate, those without cars or access to extended family networks - mainly the poor and black - would not be able to flee? Sure, some people were just idiots and ignored the warnings, but even the smartest person isn't going to get very far without a car and some cash. Our government, on both the local and federal level, should have prepared better.

Many people on the right say that criticizing the White House emboldens terrorists and gives comfort to those who would do us harm, but I'd argue that the chaos we're seeing in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast is doing more to convince our enemies that we're vulnerable than anything Michael Moore or the Air America crowd could ever dish out.