Overwhelming force to shock and awe had been available to military plans with ample reserve. But the world's sole superpower pleads powerlessness to protect civilians and national properties and treasures under its coercive military control. Despite total US control of Iraqi airspace, there is no around-the-clock airlift of humanitarian supplies as in the Berlin blockade, notwithstanding that the toppling of Saddam's statue in central Baghdad by a handful was eagerly compared with the fall of the Berlin Wall by the US media. Apparently, Arabs don't need food and water as much as Europeans do. The US military can summon hundred of cruise missiles and precision bombs to target Saddam on a few minutes' notice, yet this superpower that spends more on its military than all the world's other nations combined cannot provide law and order and basic sustenance for the people it has just conquered. This is a superpower only of destruction, and a paper tiger when it comes to humanitarian rescue.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED24Ak04.html
The above was written in April, 2003. Most of it applies to how the US federal government has handled the disaster in New Orleans. It is no surprise to me that they have messed this up beyond belief, what really puzzles me is why Americans voted them back into office.
I have been so distressed today from the ongoing crisis in New Orleans and the ongoing crisis in Iraq. I feel like beating my head against a wall and scream HOW CAN AMERICANS BE SO STUPID?
The deaths in the stampede were mainly due to the very high level of stress and fear in the Iraqi people, caused by the optional war for imaginary weapons.
The deaths in New Orleans are caused by a hurricane and a generous helping of human stupidity. Stupid to build a city below sea level and then not keep the levees repaired. Stupid not to evacuate the people, which means going in there with a bus and getting people on the bus. Stupid not to plan for such an emergency by FEMA and local government and federal government. Stupid to send 20,000+ stressed out poor people to all live and sleep together at the Superdome or the Astrodome. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
In Havana, they evacuate all the people in a target area and take them, by bus, to schools in safe areas. In Havana, they are way smarter than the Americans.
God help the poor people in New Orleans and in Iraq.
No comments:
Post a Comment