Produced by Jody Paulson and Skidmark Bob for comments, questions and donations contact Jody at jody@krfp.org PO Box 427214, San Francisco, CA 94142
Hi, I'm Jody Paulson with what they don't tell you.
Two horrific tragedies took place at the end of August. I mention them together because I think they have something important in common. There's a lesson to be learned here, and we have to learn it the hard way.
The first disaster, of course, was Katrina, which ripped through the Gulf Coast and trashed the all-important levees which kept the bowl that was New Orleans from turning into a lake.
It's not as if. in the words of Michael Chertoff, this event was "breathtaking in its surprise." Let's hear what Ivor Van Heerden, director of Louisian State University's Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes, had to say one month before Katrina hit: "If a hurricane comes next month, New Orleans could no longer exist."
Al Naomi, of Louisiana's Army Corps of Engineers, said the 300 miles of levees protecting New Orleans were never meant to withstand forces above a category 3 storm. Yet George Bush slashed the funding for the Corps of Engineers' projects to strengthen and raise the levees and diverted this money to the Gulf war. That's not the only thing in the Gulf that could have helped. Helicopters that could have patched the levees that were breaking. Erosion-control equipment being used to shield our troops from munitions instead of for their original purpose, and last but not least, thousands of Louisiana and Mississippi National Guardsmen who watched helplessly as home were destroyed, families displaced, and the Big Easy erupted into lawlessness.
Instead of defending their hometowns, these men were out guarding oil contractors in a country that was better off without them -- a country that had no WMD's, let alone the power to wipe out a major American city.
A couple days after the storm hit, Iraq was faced with its own tragedy. As thousands of Shiite pilgrims crossed a bridge someone incited panic with false rumors of a suicide bomber, and hundreds were crushed to death or drown in the Tigris below.
Do you see any similarities here? Nearly 70 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Fear of a non-existant bomber killed 965 Iraqis. Fear of non-existant WMD's prompted us to send billions of dollars, thousands of National Guardsmen and all our priorities to a quagmire in Iraq -- instead of keeping them in the homeland, where they are need most.
When will the lesson ever sink in?
I'm Jody Paulson, and I just thought you should know.
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