As many of you are aware there is a terrible tragedy unfolding, one that has affected hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and will continue to do so. It has robbed people of their homes, of their livelihoods, of their security, of their hope.
You think I’m talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, don’t you?
Strange how you might assume that.
After two and a half years, Iraq has seen nothing but death, destruction, and deprivation. Basic services in Iraq are still intermittent, sewage remains a drastic problem, and the unemployment rate is over 50%. And now, beyond the insurgency, which has grown, diversified, and shown amazing resilience and adaptation (in Al-Anbar province it has fought the United States to an absolute standstill), Iraq’s constitutional crisis may very well act as the last nail in its coffin. After two and a half years of foreign occupation and grief, the people of Iraq may now have to face a civil war.
What is the difference between the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in Iraq? There is absolutely nothing that anyone can do about a hurricane.
It’s disturbing how an agenda can alter how much value we place on life, not to mention race. How much death is excusable for the promotion of democracy or to fulfill the gas guzzling needs of others? Is the life of a child worth a quarter off of a gallon of gas? How about twenty children? Were they white children I can assure you that alternative fuel technology funding would be through the roof.
For the most part, we view death through a surreal filter, through a soft lens, from the comfortable confines of living rooms, from the cushioned warmth of couches. We watch as one dimensional personalities detail death with perfect hair, their exquisite dental work giving death a smile. We have become so accustomed to a sanitized reality that it has become nearly impossible for us to fathom our own culpability.
President Bush cut his vacation short and returned to Washington to address the country, to reassure Americans that the government is doing all that it can in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What Mr. Bush did not mention was that more than a third of the members of the Mississippi and Louisiana National Guard are either in Iraq or supporting the war effort. These are the men and women who are supposed to be the first available resource with regards to rescue and security operations in disasters such as this. According to National Guard officials in those states affected, the limits of available manpower are already being stretched. It should also come as no surprise that most of those remaining to face this disaster have already done tours in Iraq.
The US Army Corps of Engineers is now tasked with trying to repair the damaged and overrun New Orleans levee system, a task that will take some time to accomplish. But what might interest you is that, in 2003, federal funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project was severely reduced. Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told a local news paper in June of 2004 that funds had been diverted…
“It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”