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It Affects You
Homeland Security is a $40 billion a year monster, and preparing for disasters is at the top of their list. Literally. The first bullet point on their list of priorities is "Supporting First Responders." The last few days they had an opportunity to show off the apparatus which they supposedly have been building to keep us safe in the event of a terrorist attack, and what they have shown should leave all Americans demanding answers.
Of course, Katrina was a force of nature and not a man made attack, but Homeland Security
should have been in a prime position to respond. Is it not their mission to study different scenarios and prepare responses to disasters big and small? Isn't it common sense that among the scenarios they have studied and prepared for, several include the destruction of a wide area and the need to evacuate a large population from an urban center? That is what Homeland does. That is what Bush has been telling us they have been doing. Had this been a dirty bomb instead of a hurricane, or had terrorists used conventional weapons to blow holes in the levies, the response needed would have been the same. And likewise they would have failed America.
One would think there would be disaster teams which could be assembled and deployed within 24 hours or so. One would think equipment would be stored at locations throughout the country, with higher concentrations near probable target areas, which New Orleans certainly was. One would think arrangements would be in place ahead of time to commandeer extra equipment - like buses to transport evacuees, for example. One would think that after Katrina hit, these plans would snap into motion and like a well greased (and financed) wheel, supplies and manpower would begin to arrive within hours. And one would think that the response to Katrina would be faster, since unlike a terrorist attack everyone knew when and where this was coming. Isn't that the one of the core reasons Homeland Security exists? But the reality has been anything but that, and a tragedy has grown far worse as a result of a series of their failures.
George Bush likes to tell us how much he's doing to keep America safe. He and all that rhetoric were tested these last few days, and hundreds of thousands of people were depending on him passing that test. But he let them down. A city was destroyed along with countless lives. And destroyed along with them was any trace of the myth that George Bush is keeping us safe.
Despite years of preparations, many billions of dollars and countless hours worth of rhetoric, the Bush administration has failed to prepare for an attack on U.S. soil, and the people of the Gulf States are paying the price.
It leaves one wondering, just what have they been doing these last four years?
From It Affects You