I've watched for a week now the unfolding tragedy in New Orleans and the US Gulf Coast. I have read a myriad of blogs, news articles and opinions. One of the more troubling themes emerging in the last few days of last week and over the weekend has been a "Now is not the time for recriminations" or "There will be plenty of time for blame later" or "Lets concentrate on rescuing and helping the victims, using Katrina for political cheap shots is improper" meme...
I feel I would do a great disservice to the thousands of people that died needlessly last week waiting for the rescue that never came, by remaining quite (sic) and polite. They demand justice. We all should.
Amen to that. And, as shocking as the possibility may seem in U.S. politics, that justice shouldn't be demanded on a partisan basis. Any problems at the state and local levels should also be thoroughly addressed, though from what I've seen (and Mike provides a nice rundown) the inaction started at the top.
In order to prevent similar tragedies in the future, the first step is to figure out exactly what went wrong. And that's necessarily going to involve a careful analysis of the political decisions that made Katrina far worse than it had to be.
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