Catastrophic Success

I missed most of last night’s speech, but what I did hear made the little Libertarian in my head start screaming and spitting with rage. Of course, the latent Democrat in my head was thrilled to hear all of the effort the Federal Government will be putting into restoring rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region and the little Republican was excited to hear that the method would be Tax-incentivized Enterprise Zones, entrepeneur-supporting policies and turning over federal land to citizens.

The sentence that sent the little Libertarian into a lather was ” It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces — the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment’s notice.” Um, waitaminnit. He wants “broader” military control over local government in a time of “challenge?”

How long before this gets exploited by President Bush or some future President? How low will the bar for a “time of challenge” to be declared and our military invades any local hamlet, town, city or county to take control? How long will they stay once the crisis is over? When will the local government finally be able to wrest control of its own populace from under the heel of the GiNormous Federal government? How can Washington, D.C. possible better administer a rescue and recovery effort when the Big One finally hits California?

I really do feel for the people in New Orleans and I want them to return to a new glorious city on the Delta, but I don’t want this to serve as a precedent to allow the military and federal government to intercede and pre-empt action by local authorities who are probably best poised to handle evacuation and rescue, at least in the immediate term. The last thing we need is to foster more dependence on the Federal Government so we have even more people sitting on their asses, waiting for the government to save their asses. It is my responsibility to appropriately respond to an evecuation order by assessing the threat and moving me and my family to a safer area. If I choose to remain, hoping the government will save me, and they don’t, it’s my fault, not the government’s.

We are a nation of individuals, not a herd of cows. We each have a brain issued to us on day one and it is our responsibility to put it to use. No man can think for another. Let’s not let the government be our Nanny and our Savior. There are plenty of people who are willing to pay private enterprise to perform both services better.

As stated over at David’s blog, I am studiously trying to avoid images and reports on the devastation caused by Katrina because my brain shuts down when I see those pictures and think of the millions of people whose lives have changed so much because they now have no homes, no cars and sometimes, no more family. To say that the destruction defies comprehension minimizes it to an extraordinary degree. I just can’t comprehend it though. My job allows me to help some of the affected people, albeit indirectly.

I am more affected by the Katrina images than the Banda Aceh Tsunami, and that struck me as odd at first. I think part of it stems from the home team mentality. After all, these are Americans whose lives are being destroyed, instead of some faraway peoples in Asia and the South Pacific. These are familiar faces, faces of many colors and shapes, American faces. Faces owned by people who move, walk and swim with that peculiar arrogance and pride that proclaims with all the subtlty of a neon sign “I am an American.” These are my brothers and sisters. These are my countrymen and women. They are me. So, I won’t be ashamed to care more that they were impacted than that the Tsunami victims were. I still feel a great deal of compassion for those affected by the Tsunami and I wish them great success in their recovery. However, I ache more for those whose lives were so much more like my own, who shared my culture, who are now bereft of all the small routines, patterns, locations and objects that made up their everyday lives.

The other factor is the advanced state of the city that was destroyed. New Orleans, as a storied, yet somehow typical American big city, contains all of the advancement, all of the quirks, all of the priveleges of American know-how. Seeing what Katrina left of New Orleans – a stinking cesspool of polluted water, destroyed artifacts of American culture, destroyed family homes and the historical French Quarter – I know that this is the goal of the terrorist allied against us. More than New Orleans itself, the destruction shows that an American city can be destroyed. All of our advanced technology, all of our social experiments, all of our vaunted economic prowess could not prevent New Orleans from being washed into the sea (if only temporarily). We are vulnerable. Our way of life can be drastically altered in a matter of days. We are not immune from danger.

I wonder how long it will take for Katrina to be called the Smiting of the Great Satan by a Veangeful Allah. If those who hate us, want us exterminated from the Earth and subservient to a Greater Caliphate had their way, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., every large Great American City ™ would look like New Orleans. It’s what they pray most fervently for. It’s what we fear most. I can’t believe that if Iran obtains Nuclear Weapons that it would take very long before one of those great cities is turned into little more than an ashheap. I worry that with proof that American cities are not impregnable, that effort to find a way for men to fully destroy them will be sped up.

The UN has offered it’s help apparently, but the tone was very “I suppose if you really want it, I could give you a hand, but I’m sure you’ll be fine by yourself.”

“The United Nations stands ready to help with any kind of disaster expertise that might be required … in full recognition that the United States is the country in the world that possesses the greatest civilian and military search and rescue and recovery assets themselves,” Egeland told Reuters in an interview.”

John Bolton told him “Thanks, but No Thanks,” which was probably the correct response if you’ve read The Diplomad’s experience with dealing with the UN’s Relief Organizations during the Asian Tsunami, in which the US, Australians and a Core Group of nations headed by those two countries did all of the heavy lifting and the UN took all the credit. If Mr. John Howard offers his help though, I’m sure we’d take it. At least then, we would know it would actually arrive when promised and that the proper people get the credit they deserve.

My dearest wishes to those affected are that they be returned to their homes and families safely and that my fellow Americans take care of them as best they can.

The Washington Times website apparently has a feature called UPI Hears…

Today’s includes a brief story on a former Bush Admin official questioning the 9/11 story.

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush’s first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is “bogus” and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7.

WHAT?! Simple question, where are the planes and the people on them? What about the calls from those people on United Flight 93? What explains the Pentagon? What is he suggesting?

1) The Government planned to demo the buildings anyway and they set off the already installed explosives after terrorists conveniently flew planes into the buildings.

2) The Government planned to demo the buildings anyway and somehow managed to install explosives after the terrorists conveniently flew planes into the buildings.

3) There were no planes and the government made the whole thing up to explain an early explosion from pre-installed explosives.

4) The government co-ordinated the 9/11 attacks.

Every one of these is ridiculous on the face of it. Tell me that your run-of-the-mill explosives expert wouldn’t flip on the conspiracy and spill the story after seeing the affect it had on the nation.

I just don’t understand this at all. What sequence of events, other than what we saw happen, explains any of this better than the current 9/11 narrative?

Here’s mine Lex