The unspeakable human disaster inflicted on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina is almost rivaled by the indefensible neglect leading up to last weekend's catastrophic fury.
Recriminations at this point don't relieve the suffering and utter helplessness of hundreds of thousands of people who've been totally dispossessed of every last belonging and now struggle to avoid death by hunger or disease or becoming victims of lawlessness that has broken out amid the devastation.
But the nation surely will demand, and deserves, a full-blown investigation into compelling questions left in Katrina's wake and what appears to be the virtual loss of a metropolitan city.
First, why did years and years of appeals for improving New Orleans' levee defenses against "the big one" go unheeded, not only by local politicians who squandered natural land protection by allowing development in wetland areas, but also federal agencies that skimped on funds?
A stunning, prophetic five-part series in 2002 by The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which can be found at www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway, virtually foresaw this week's calamity.
And second, with ample forewarning of Hurricane Katrina's intensity and destructiveness on the way, why were federal disaster responses not activated, and why were most Corps of Engineer funds for levee improvement diverted to the war in Iraq?
Even President Bush was slow to react: Instead of appearing within hours of Katrina's fury, he showed up a day late.
And one of the president's first decisions hardly seemed consistent with Katrina victims' needs—opening spigots of the Strategic Oil Reserve to prevent hurricane-spawned shortages from boosting gasoline prices. Tens of thousands of Katrina refugees have no need for gasoline, so keeping prices down smells of political pandering to the rest of the nation.
Had President Bush pushed Detroit early in his presidency to increase mileage efficiency in autos, his concern now about shortages and prices would be more believable.
Ultimately, Katrina may convince a majority in Congress that U.S. resources—funds as well as manpower—are stretched to the breaking point with our Iraq military expedition.
The immediate request for $10 billion in Katrina disaster relief will add to the nation's deficit miseries and debt. And the shortage of National Guard troops at home (40 percent of U.S. troops in Iraq are Guard members) illustrates how Iraq has exhausted the nation's standby military forces in a war now deemed wrong by most Americans.
When the crisis at hand has passed, Congress and the president will owe the American people some answers—and some action.
