Blood on Their Hands, Bob Herbert, NY Times, 9/29/05

[Coastie for Truth]

The special House committee investigating the government's response to the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe (sometimes known as the Committee to Keep the Heat Off Bush) gave a good thrashing on Tuesday to Michael Brown, the terminally hapless former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At the moment, nothing's safer politically in the U.S. than pounding the heck out of Brownie. But pummeling a scapegoat, even one as mouthwateringly tempting as the spectacularly clueless Mr. Brown, will not get us closer to understanding the monumental breakdown of government that contributed mightily to one of the greatest tragedies in American history.

For that we need a highly respected and truly independent commission that is willing to root out all the facts, no matter how embarrassing to the people in power, and lay out a reasonable plan for the future. The Bush administration wants no part of that.

On this issue, the American people should take a stand. Government at all levels failed the city of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, and many died as a result. This was a widely predicted tragedy, and still it was allowed to happen. The mayor of New Orleans, a Democrat by the name of Ray Nagin, should have known better than anyone else in the country that a large portion of his city's population would be unable to evacuate on their own because they didn't have money, or they didn't have cars, or they didn't have a place to go, or they were just too ill to move. He failed in his obligation to them.

Make no mistake: government officials have blood on their hands. Men, women and children - some of them handicapped, some of them elderly or already desperately ill - were condemned to horrible suffering and, in many cases, agonizing deaths. Human beings were left to drown in their flooded homes, in hospitals, in nursing homes and in the street. The American people deserve to know why.

... edited due to length ....

The Administration is scapegoating everybody and blaming a Karl Rovian "Blame Game" - It is time to get to the bottom of this --- a real "Lessons Learned" - "Hot Debrief" -- "After Action Report."

[texpatriot2004]

1. They certainly do have blood on their hands...American blood...

the blood of the "weakest among us" needless blood...

"Bureaucracy has committed murder here and bureaucracy must stand trial." Aaron Broussard

[Larkspur]

2. The state and local officials followed the disaster response plan.

It was FEMA who did not.

The non-partisan report that came out recently cleared the state and local officials. Their only mistake was trusting FEMA, but they were suppose to trust FEMA. A Catch-22.

[Skittles]

3. I want to know why

I need answers because I really do not understand