President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.
"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
OK, this is a FIRST for George W. Bush. But it is indeed a welcome first, and, much as I wanted to berate and lambaste him, I am truly happy and gratified that he felt the need to acknowledge the fact that there was a colossal failure at EVERY LEVEL of the government in RESPONDING to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
One could say that Bush decided to play this "I take responsibility" stance purely to stem the erosion of the public's support for his presidency and to improve his job performance rating. One could say that, but I won't. I won't because I subscribe to the "better late than never" school of thought, and I will take his apologies any day as long as it prevents a re-occurence of such failures in the future.
The images of helpless, hapless and unfortunate victims of the natural disaster that attended Katrina are so haunting, so tramatic, and so un-American that words can not do justice to description. The experience is made more so unbelievable and unacceptable in view of the inordinate amount of money and resources we have, hitherto, been told have been dedicated to securing the Homeland and making us safe and prepared for disaster such as Katrina. The lack of resources, the disorganization, the lack of directions, and every other mishap that attended the response effort made a mockery of the United States of America, and that, in and of itself, is unacceptable.
I have tried not to subscribe to the notion that race played a role in rescue effort, but it is hard to ignore the fact. However, by choosing to ignore (or rather not dwell on) that fact, one is faced with the equally odious realization that this mishap has opened our eyes to the stark realization that, in spite of the posturing, in spite of the number of civil rights that we had to give up for Patriot Act, in spite of the billions of dollars spent to date, in spite of assurances of security, in spite of the Iraq war and the other "War on Terrorism", we are grossly unprepared, grossly ill-suited to safeguard the homeland, grossly ill-equipped to fulfill our fundamental obligations to provide security to the citizenry. Imagine what could have happened if one or more Katrinas had happened at the same time, or, worse, if a terrorist organization had chosen that exact moment to forment troubles. Imagine that.
If race had nothing to do with what happened after Katrina, this country is in danger, in a worse shape than it was pre-911. If race had nothing to do with it, Bush's admission is a welcome first-step, but it is only that - a first step. The logical next step in this baby step in a critical re-evaluation of our preparedness, which will logically include re-examining all the previous assumptions and assurances that may have been made by those responsible for our security. The responsible parties need to now be held accountable and asked to justify those assumptions and prove those assurances.
Bush once relied on information provided to him by those who ought to know, and he once used that information to take a decisive (and drastic) action against Iraq. We know how that turned out. Bush has relied on people who ought to know to secure the homeland. We now again know how this has turned out. The difference here is that the Iraq episode is beyond salvage, but our homeland security MUST not fall into that category as well. We trusted our security to some people who ought to know. They failed us. We need accountability. That accountability will entail harsh and honest apportionment of responsibilities, and such apportionment will require that Bush does another thing that he has, so far, not been able to bring himself to do - fire the culprits. Loyalty is said to mean a lot to Bush, and loyalty is, indeed, a very laudable thing - but NOT when it puts the Homeland in jeopardy.
Mr. President, your primary and paramount loyalty is to the entire country, and that MUST take precedence over any other form of loyalty. Please go on to the next step. Bring all those responsible for this tragedy to justice and make them accountable.