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September 14, 2005
Five Words
The Katrina analysis by Newsweek's Evan Thomas is an absolute must-read for anyone who wants to hold a conversation about governmental-response failures. (There are shades of William Langewiesche, which is as high a compliment as I can pay to process reporting.) Thomas' findings argue, in essence, that Bush could have saved thousands of lives -- and perhaps his presidential legacy -- with five simple words:
"Call in the 82nd Airborne."
That he didn't is the Pilate's stain of this administration. Why didn't he? Thomas offers a persuasive theory:
Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street. Most presidents keep a devil's advocate around. Lyndon Johnson had George Ball on Vietnam; President Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, grudgingly listened to the arguments of Budget Director Richard Darman, who told them what they didn't wish to hear: that they would have to raise taxes. When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority.
I believe I've made my disgust with the early Bush-sniping in this tragedy rather clear. And there is something absurd -- if uniquely American -- about using political blame as a rash form of theophany. But if this is the state of the White House (and all public evidence points to the accuracy of Evan's thesis) then George W. Bush, if no one else, deserves everything that's happened to him in the last two weeks.
| By mesh | 03:39 PM
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