Analysis: Video Explains U.S. Frustration

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President Bush vowed, ``We are fully prepared.'' Mike Brown barked orders. Weather experts warned of a killer storm. The behind-the-scenes drama, captured on videotape as Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, confirmed Americans' suspicions of government leaders: They can run a good meeting, but little else. It is hard to review the transcripts and footage obtained by The Associated Press without reaching three conclusions.

-Federal, state and local officials knew what was about to occur.
-They knew what to do about it.
-They failed to deliver.

For most Americans, this is not a revelation. The public blamed all levels of government long before Bush and other leaders owned up to their responsibilities after the sluggish post-Katrina response. But the videotape and transcripts offer a graphic display of a fatally inept bureaucracy at work - a system where everybody talks a good game and nobody produces.


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Theda Skocpol, dean of the graduate school of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, said Bush lost his can-do credibility in Katrina's winds. ``The whole episode has raised the question in the public mind about what government can do, but it also raised questions about the Bush administration, which was built on the promise of protecting people in case of emergencies,'' she said.

The White House points to places in the transcripts where Bush is said to be engaged. That may be true, but Americans also heard the president on videotape boasting that his government was prepared for Katrina. He was certainly wrong about that. Now the public has more evidence to consider whether he was also arrogant, out of touch and dangerously incurious.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5659590,00.html