As
Eugene Robinson points out in a great WP editorial, New Orleans has been of late a city of black poverty and white good times:
A map showing where black people live in the city matches almost perfectly with a map showing where poor people live -- and also matches quite well with a map showing the lowest-lying neighborhoods most affected by the flooding. In other words, blacks were less likely than whites to have the means to escape the city before Hurricane Katrina hit -- less likely, even, to have the education to fully understand what was about to happen -- and more likely to live in areas that would be inundated.
And what does Donald Rumsfeld have to say about long-oppressed looters ransacking a lawless city? Well, frankly he
says this
And while no one condones looting, on the other hand one can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression
Only difference is, Rummy's talking about Baghdad here. And for some reason, focusing on the looting and disorder in Baghdad in 2003 was a "fundamental misunderstanding" of what was happening in that city.
So tell me, Bush Administration. Is focusing on the looting in New Orleans a fundamental misunderstanding of the successes of FEMA in liberating those citizens?
Or are the black citizens of New Orleans doing what the Shiite Iraqis did when the Sunni regime fell; letting out pent-up feelings of rage from decades of repression?