Tom's column this week
Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 11:28AM Putting a man on the moon, or anywhere disaster strikes
In the future dystopian film "Children of Men," Britain soldiers on with a Ministry of Homeland Security whose forces scour the island for illegal immigrants. Evoking a siege mentality in a world suffering from an infertility crisis, security equates to sealed borders that hold a chaotic world at bay.
General David Petraeus, new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, tells of encountering the man-on-the-moon syndrome among Iraqis following Saddam's fall: "If America can put a man on the moon," they surmised, "then surely it can rebuild Iraq quickly!" Following Hurricane Katrina, that naive assumption seemed wholly disproved back home. We couldn't manage New Orleans, so what made us think we'd fix Baghdad?
Read on at KnoxNews.
Read on at Scripps Howard.
Reader Comments (6)
Profits are important but so are moral values like honor.
Waiting the wings might one man who can command and can lead and do so with honor.
The Long Grey Line has served the country well over the past two centuries. Its needed now, lest we elect another Frenegi who has the ability to raise much money but little command ability or little honor.
Maybe the next really qualifiied man at the top is Wesley Clark.
Don't believe me? How do you account for all the buildings in NOLA that STILL have tarps in the place of roofs?
Having grown up in New Orleans, my response is wow! It's patently obvious, now, but we just couldn't see it, because we just couldn't put it into words and bring it into focus.
If true (and I think it is) New Orleans is managing pretty well, all things considered.
Can we extrapolate from New Orleans post-Katrina to Iraq post-Saddam?
Except that both of them are cluster-%@#%s, I think not.
I have studied the Katerina response and came up wiht some verse:
The Second Savings of New Orleans
In Twenty Seven in the heavens fell in the MidwestThe mighty Mississippi grew to flood stageThe vast flow of water overtopped levees north of New OrleansSerious sub rosa citizens metIf New Orleans were to be savedThe laws of physics must be observedAn outlet must be foundIt was, 30 miles downstream in a parish called Plaquemine.
In Oh Five the Louisiana Gator Boys and Blues Brother’s BandJammed a on NetFlix DVD
“Hey, Hey, Hey, YeahCome on everybody take a trip with meDown the Mississippi Down to New OrleansIf you ain’t been to heaven, you ain’t been thereEvery Southern Belle is a Mississippi QueenDown the Mississippi Down to New Orleans”
On the 28th the music stoppedThe President watched Katrina menace the Gulf coastMayfield told CNN’s Aaron BrownThat New Orleans had a 50/50 chance of survival.The President went to LA to raise campaign funds.The VP was fly-fishing at night in the darkThe head of the DHS went to Atlanta to discuss bird flu.Serious sub rosa citizens were silentOrdinary citizens heard the explosions
The levees failedReports were they were overtoppedBut a bathtub ring marked the high water mark.Other spin saidLoose barges crashed into two different levees simultaneously,Creating two breaches and another credibility gap.
Subverted then by unstable soil far belowHadn’t happened before or sinceBut the U of Cal and the ASCE concurredIgnoring any mention of explosions reportedor any rigorous examination of debris
The French Quarter, Downtown and the Garden DistrictSurvived again.
ReferencesJohn Barry’s book Rising Tide, the film, Blue Brothers 2000, Elizabeth Kolbert’s articles in the New Yorker, and my recollection of CNN news broadcasts.