[Previous entry: "Don't Give Your Hurricane Donations to the Red Cross"] [Next entry: "Because they can"]
09/02/2005:
"The Smirk of a Killer"
The man in the Oval Office is fond of condemning "killers." But his administration continues to kill with impunity."They can go into Iraq and do this and do that," Martha Madden, former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said Thursday, "but they can't drop some food on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now? It's just mind-boggling."
The policies are matters of priorities. And the priorities of the Bush White House are clear. For killing in Iraq, they spare no expense. For protecting and sustaining life, the cupboards go bare.
The problem is not incompetence. It's inhumanity, cruelty and greed.
Media outlets have popularized some tactical critiques of U.S. military operations in Iraq. But the administration is competent enough to keep the military-industrial complex humming. It's good at generating huge profits for "defense" contractors, oil companies and the like. First things first, and first things last.
Why shore up levees when the precious money it would take can be better used for war in Iraq? Why allow National Guard units to remain home when they can be useful, killing and being killed, in a faraway war based on lies?
And when catastrophe hits people close to home, why should the president respond with urgency or adequacy if their lives don't figure as truly important in his political calculus?
It's time to end the impunity of President George W. Bush.
informationclearinghouse.org
Audio Interview With Mayor Nagin--Listen
Jordan Flaherty: Notes from Inside New Orleans
Trapped in an Arena of Suffering
Randall Robinson blog
Two Americas: Sink or Swim
From Natural Disaster to National Humiliation
The Humbling of a Superpower
The Perfect Storm
Hurricane Katrina: the Obvious Questions
What They Should Have Learned from a Hurricane Named Ivan
Major Oil Spill Seen on Mississippi River
New Orleans Rocked by Huge Blasts
Will the 'New' New Orleans be Black?
Venezuela Offers Food and Humanitarian Aid
