HispanicVista Columnists

The blame game over the US government response (or I should say governments) is in high gear. Day by day there are more sad details coming out that reveal faulty or delayed actions at federal, state and local levels. Of course, calls are made to investigate what and who went wrong. Outside of trying to do the best and most rapid actions now and get into investigations after the dust settles, it appears to me that any of the processes of investigation called for are flawed. All investigations suggested so far would have vested interests and try and cover up. I like Bill O'Reilly's suggestion of an independent board made up of retired military general officers. They would have nothing to hide and would be immune to pressures. That said, I would like to address what led to this "unacceptable" performance across the board (President Bush's word). And for this, we have to go back a number of years.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created and raised to a cabinet level independent agency with a lot of power to be able to direct recovery efforts for national disasters. They had the power necessary to channel money and people to do the job as fast as possible. As such, it was known world wide as one of the finest organizations of its type. It was not that well known because it was in the background until disaster struck. But there have been some conservatives who thought that FEMA, as a government agency, had too much power. This has been under the political surface for many years, and with the advent of the present Bush administration, the downgrading of FEMA started.

The first thing that happened was cutting back projects funding (like a program for preparing for the next big earthquake in the Seattle area). The agency was cut back and the exodus of seasoned specialists from that agency started. And funding is still low.

In 2001, after the 9/11 attack, a new federal department, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was created as part of the reaction to bad and confused intelligence that caught the US completely unaware of the growing threat. As I said before, adding layers of bureaucracy never solves anything except making things more cumbersome. In addition, FEMA was reduced from its former cabinet level position to become a part of the DHS bureaucracy. Some FEMA people say that they have to get permission to go to the bathroom from DHS now. In other words, what was once a lean, mean fast response operation is now part of a burgeoned and bloated far-flung operation that has its main focus on terrorism. Sorry about this, but natural disasters don't come on the scene high jacking airliners with box cutters. After the structural change, Michael Brown, a bureaucrat with no FEMA or related background was placed in charge of the stripped down operation. Another paper shuffler. Now, the DHS has had its first real test, and it failed . . . badly. And this time they had days of warnings.

Brown is out now. Good. He will probably be given a medal and his "resignation" will be accepted with "reluctance". I remember one case of a president getting rid of a non-performing key functionary. When asked if he (it was Harry Truman) had accepted the man's resignation, Truman said "I didn't accept his resignation, I fired him". I miss HST, he told things like they were.

If this wasn't bad enough, several states have mimicked the federal government and set up their own DHS operations. Louisiana is one of them. They were the ones who held up the Red Cross for 2 or 3 days waiting for permission to deliver needed aid while the Louisiana DHS shuffled papers. They also blocked AMTRAK to aid in evacuation efforts.

Now let's look at the National Guard. For the first time since the Revolutionary War, the US is now fighting a real war without conscription. And to make up for needed manpower; the National Guard (along with the active reserve forces) is being used in a big way. The fact that the war was not properly planned or prepared for is not our subject, but the result is that the National Guard system has been decimated by the Iraq war. And if that is not enough, the Pentagon wants to close many Guard bases and "consolidate" operations to save money.

In Louisiana, a lot of their guard members are in Iraq. It is the prime responsibility of the National Guard to be available to combat local disasters. This may have been some of the thinking of the governor of Louisiana when asked by President Bush to release the remaining Louisiana Guard to federal control. She refused after first asking for help.

The president of the United States has the power to federalize any state National Guard forces when needed with a stroke of his pen. There is ample legal precedence, but Bush did not act.

After President Bush, the one federal official that has the power to mobilize vast federal response was DHS head Michael Chertoff who can act with or without requests from state and local officials. He also has the responsibility to issue the critical "Incident of National Significance" statement that starts the ball rolling, but didn't act until 36 hours after Katrina struck. Chertoff has never explained that yet. And Brown reported to Chertoff.

Possibly Bush's problem is that he thought the DHS bureaucracy that he and congress created would actually work in an emergency. Think about that.

Not to put everything on the federal government's plate, we had a waffling governor and a mayor (of New Orleans) who were acting like they lived on different planets. And no one at state or local level seems to have taken the results of the dress rehearsal called "Hurricane Pam" a year ago. This clearly showed many flaws in the standing disaster response plan including no plan to evacuate the large poverty level population in New Orleans.

In short, the US governments have been practicing what I call here "the Mexican Two Step". Rather than trying to solve problems, just create more bureaucracy. It's harder to fix blame that way.

I commend the Mexican government who asked for permission to send a contingent of the Mexican military to help. Three days after Bush agreed, the Mexican army crossed the Texas border and a Mexican naval vessel was on the way to New Orleans. Good Show!
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com