http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_4054244,00.htmlNew Orleans is Bush's WaterlooBy Tom Parker
September 4, 2005
President Bush has now presided over the two most catastrophic domestic disasters in U.S. history -- the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, in which nearly 3,000 people died, and Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi and where the death toll may yet exceed that of 9/11.
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While Katrina grew to a Category 5 hurricane -- the worst there is --over four to five days, and moved along a direct course for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, federal officials in both New Orleans and Washington, D.C., knew that the levees holding back the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain were slowly deteriorating and a direct hit from a hurricane could unleash massive flooding across the entire New Orleans basin.
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Not only was his cowboy gunfight in Iraq dangerously depleting federal budgets, but the most massive government spending deficits in our history were bankrupting the American economy. Making matters even worse, Bush was granting irresponsible federal tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans.
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Would Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton vampires have landed that contract as well? After all, their performance in managing a plethora of projects in the third great disaster of the Bush administration -- the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- could only be described as "blood-sucking" after their multibillion-dollar inflated billings to the government were exposed.
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To measure Bush's lack of leadership of our nation in time of major disaster, we only need to recall the seven minutes he sat frozen in his chair on 9/11 after being told the country was under attack. Nor should we ever forget that while Hurricane Katrina was dissecting southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, our "leader" continued flitting about the country giving speeches to justify his ill-fated war, including side trips to a golf club and to play guitar with a little-known country singer.
Just as Bush was not prepared for the events of 9/11, neither was he prepared for the loss of three American cities, despite knowing that day could come. Just as his lack of business acumen put two companies and a baseball team under water, his lack of leadership did the same to New Orleans.
But, most troubling, we are seeing a president who does not understand accountability nor accept responsibility, but does have a penchant for taking lengthy vacations, come hell or high water -- and they came!
Regrettably, the destruction of New Orleans was a man-made catastrophe that did not have to happen. With no pun intended, the loss of New Orleans is becoming Bush's Waterloo!
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Tom Parker, of Westlake Village, is the former assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI Office and a leader of the federal response to the disastrous 1992 riots and the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles.
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