The NY Post can't quite bring itself to criticize Bush too strongly, but even they realize FEMA's Michael Brown is grossly incompetent and has caused the unnecessary death of Americans. The front page story? "Dead Wait," with the inside article headlined "FEMA Fool Sat On His Hands." Even an Op-Ed column by Ralph Peters in the NY Post on Tuesday that tries to defend Bush and denounce "playing politics" can't resist blasting the buffoons in charge:
The Bush administration seems to have a problem with serious planning outside of a campaign. Our troops were sent into Iraq without an occupation plan and now we find that, four years after 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security, which swallowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appears to have done no serious planning for a national disaster.And furious over Europe's sometimes callous attitude towards this disaster, he blasts their leadership for an unforgivable dereliction of duty:
What on earth has DHS been doing...?
What's striking is that the administration and the staffers at Homeland Security didn't seem to grasp all the resources available to them -- or even what their responsibilities were. Anything but reassuring, the clumsy initial response to Katrina must have Islamist terrorists stroking their beards, smiling and thinking ahead....
When the last water recedes, we may find that a few thousand Americans died in a great natural catastrophe. But two years ago, during a heat-wave, 25,000 elderly Europeans died unnecessarily in France, Italy and Germany while their political leaders, medical personnel and even their children went on vacation -- and stayed on vacation.I agree: leaders of countries who stay on vacation during unprecedented national disasters are beyond contempt.
