Don't "Politicize" Tragedy? The Tragedy is Political (Lot of truth here)

http://www.lefthook.org/Politics/Alam090305.html


<snip>No honest human being would describe the deaths of theatre-goers in a fire as a simple "misfortune" if it turned out that the theater owner locked all the fire exits. Those burned alive inside the building would not be the victims of "just an accident" if the one responsible for their safety and means of escape failed them out of malice or negligence. Similarly, none can seriously claim that the suffering inflicted on the refugees in New Orleans is merely the result of a "natural disaster" - for their plight has been exacerbated by an administration that cares more for profit and the misadventure in Iraq than for the people of New Orleans.

Let us look at the facts. The arrival of a deadly hurricane was not a surprise. In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency called a major hurricane hitting New Orleans one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country." So what happened to FEMA? Bush began privatizing the agency, with a Bush official in the agency calling it an "oversized entitlement program." Two years later, FEMA was dissolved from cabinet level to an appendage of the Department of Homeland Security. Bush appointed one of his political cronies to head the organization, Michael Brown, a man with absolutely zero experience in managing disasters - except for his own existence: his last job was in the International Arabian Horse Association, and even there he was forced to resign.

In June 2004, the administration also gutted the Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee building in New Orleans to 20% of its previous commitment, citing war costs. In the past year, at least eight articles have appeared in New Orlean's major daily, the Times-Picayune, explaining that construction of the levee system was being crippled by the siphoning of funds into the Iraq war and "homeland security." Al Naomi, project manager for the Corps in the area, had said, "we don't have money to put the work in the field." In June 2005, funding for the New Orleans district of the Corps was slashed by $71.2 million dollars, more than 40%. Money for construction evaporated.

Additionally, the idea that one or two people shooting at military helicopters could bring relief efforts to a halt is utterly absurd. How is it possible, for instance, that many journalists have been able to weave in and out of these places, while the military claims it is too "dangerous" to help? How is it possible that the most powerful military force the world has ever seen is being impeded by a miniscule number of civilians with semi-automatics?

Only the vicious American Right, drowning in its moral cesspool of hatred for blacks and love for greed, would blame the victims for taking desperately needed supplies that have already been written off as insurance losses by companies anyway. Only white supremacists, such as those often perched on the news desks of Fox News, could focus on the tiny minority of people taking TVs and luxury items, while utterly ignoring the outstanding fact that the real looting has been carried out by Bush and his rich allies, who have robbed the people and the social sector blind in order to line their own pockets, thus leaving the poor helpless in the face of disaster.