The Hurricane and Bush’s Criminal Negligence: [also in German]

Listen to audio streaming of Sept. 2 Troops Out Now action in Times Square demanding money for hurricane victims, not for war

Bush Slashed Flood Protection  

Bush sent emergency personnel and  equipment to Iraq  

Bush’s role in global warming Oil Profiteering  

Bush failed to develop an evacuation plan  

No emergency relief  program, even now

Statement from the International Action Center

September 1, 2005--With every hour that passes, we see and hear new stories of the horror  and devastation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What makes these  images more shocking is the realization that much of the death and  destruction could have been prevented.

Almost all of the death and destruction arising from the hurricane is  the direct result of criminal neglect by the Bush Administration. This crisis was predicted in numerous reports and news articles and  little, if anything, was done.

While natural disasters are beyond our control, the preparation for  expected and predicted disasters is something that we can control. Natural disasters do not have to be catastrophes if plans are made in advance to protect people and their homes, but these plans were not made.

We cannot discuss the effects of this catastrophe without noting that  those who have suffered most are people of color. Seventy percent of New Orleans’ residents are Black, as are a major part of the  population of the surrounding area affected by the hurricane. The  fact that absolutely no preparations were made for their evacuation,  that no thought was given to meeting their basic emergency needs in  the wake of the storm, and that even now they have been abandoned and  ignored by the government, lays bare the racism at the core of U.S.  society and at the heart of the policies of George W. Bush. The criminal negligence displayed by all levels of government  preceding and during this crisis sends a clear message that, to those  in power, the lives of poor people, especially poor Black people, are  of absolutely no concern.

 President Bush has diverted funds that were needed to prepare for  this type of natural disaster to fund a war of conquest in Iraq. He did this despite being warned of the potential for danger by FEMA (the  Federal Emergency Management Agency) as early as 2001. The Houston Chronicle reported on Dec. 1, 2001: “New Orleans is sinking. And its  main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta,  is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to  disaster. ...So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the  Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New  Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters  facing this country.”

The Bush Administration knew of the danger and they knew how to prepare for it. But they chose to do little or nothing – they actually  slashed funding for preventative and emergency measures, leaving the  people of the region helpless to deal with the inevitable disaster. Now, with the destruction of New Orleans and numerous surrounding  communities, tens of thousands of people are without food, water, or  electricity. Thousands of homes are destroyed and the death toll continues to climb.

This is a disaster of unprecedented proportion. It is poor and  working people, particularly people of color, who are suffering the  most from this disaster.

No preparation

It was clear from watching the disaster unfold that no real plans had  been made for evacuating the region, even though everyone, including Federal authorities and meteorologists, knew that a hurricane of  enormous magnitude was descending on the area.

For the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, there was no provision for evacuation or shelter. It was “everyone for themselves,” and  those who didn’t have the ability to flee or the means to finance  their own evacuation were left to perish. There were no arrangements  for more than 100,000 people in New Orleans - 20 % of the population  and overwhelmingly the poorest part of the population. Those with out  cars, credit cards, and hotel reservations had few alternatives but to  stay home and face the coming deluge. The death toll continues to  mount, and it becomes more and more apparent how little the government  is concerned for human life, particularly the lives of poor and  working people.

There were many obvious things that could have and should have been  done if the government were concerned about the lives of the people. Trains, airlines, buses, and other transportation could have been put  to use evacuating people. Convention centers, hotels, and college dormitories throughout the region could have been used for shelter. The government uses eminent domain to take working people’s property  for the benefit of corporate developers; this would have been an  excellent opportunity to use eminent domain in a way that actually  benefits people. 

Because there was no plan for evacuation, more than 20,000 people  were herded into the Superdome without adequate food, shelter, water, or medical care for days. The New York Times said, “By Wednesday, the  stench was staggering. Heaps of rotting garbage in bulging white plastic bags baked under a blazing Louisiana sun on the main entry  plaza, choking new arrivals as they made their way into the stadium  after being plucked off rooftops and balconies. The odor billowing  from toilets was even fouler. Trash spilled across corridors and  aisles, slippery with smelly mud and scraps of food.”

Videos of the situation (see below) show just how desperate the  situation is—people are without food, water, and medicine .Bodies are  piling up on the streets. The people have been absolutely abandoned  by the government.

Only massive immediate Federal intervention can relieve the  situation. The government has access to stockpiles of food and  medicines and it has cargo planes and helicopters to deliver them. Yet the Administration has chosen not to act while people are dying.

Slashing emergency preparations to fund war and tax cuts for the wealthy

Knowing that a hurricane of this strength was eventually inevitable,  the Bush Administration slashed the budget of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the area by $71.2 million. This cut eliminated hurricane  and flood protection projects as well as a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane. This cut was part of  the Bush policy of slashing essential programs to pay for a tax cut  for the wealthy and for the occupation of Iraq. 

Comparing the cuts of more than $71 million for flood protection to  the $1.7 billion taken from the people of Louisiana for the war in  Iraq yields one more example of how the Bush policy of endless war  endangers the population here.

The Aug. 30 Editor and Publisher revealed that $250 million in  crucial projects planned by the Army Corps of Engineers in the delta  for shoring up levees and building pumping stations could not be  carried out. “The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending  pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security—coming at  the same time as federal tax cuts—was the reason for the strain.

“The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of  that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in  history.”

Emergency Specialists and Equipment sent to Iraq

The National Guard, who would normally be deployed to aid in  evacuation and disaster relief, is unable to respond adequately  because 40% of the Mississippi National Guard 35% of the Louisiana  National Guard is in Iraq. So is much of their equipment, including  dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators that  are essential to dealing with this type of emergency.

According to the Washington Post, "With thousands of their  citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane  Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions  yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among  other units, and requesting help from distant states and the  active-duty military."

Many of the members of the National Guard are also emergency medical  technicians and firefighters. They should be at home helping their neighbors recover from this disaster, not in Iraq maintaining an  illegal occupation.

Contempt for Environment exacerbates disaster

The flooding is exacerbated by the elimination of wetlands, which  provide a natural buffer. The Bush Administration has removed Federal protection from as much as 20 million acres of wetlands. The Bush Administration has demonstrated utter disregard for human  life and contempt for international law by refusing to abide by the  1997 Kyoto accord, a treaty signed by the United States and 54 other  nations. The agreement is designed to limit emissions that cause  global warming.

Sir David King, the British Government's chief scientific adviser,  says that global warming may be responsible for the devastation reaped  by Hurricane Katrina. "The increased intensity of hurricanes is  associated with global warming. We have known since 1987 the intensity  of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that,  over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these  regions have increased by half a degree centigrade. So it is easy to  conclude that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with  global warming."

Loss of life is avoidable – Cuba a U.N. model

The massive loss of life in Louisiana and Mississippi was avoidable,  if those making decisions were interested in funding emergency  measures rather than spending money on war and occupation. Cuba lies  directly in the path of many hurricanes, and yet the loss of life is  usually minimal, because the government has systems in place to aid  orderly evacuations, provide emergency shelter, and look after the  elderly, the handicapped, and the poor. 

In 2001, when Hurricane Michelle, a level-4 storm, hit with sustained  125-mile-per-hour winds and widespread floods, more than 700,000  people were evacuated. Only five Cubans lost their lives in the storm.

In September 2004, Cuba endured Ivan, the fifth-largest hurricane  ever to hit the Caribbean, with sustained winds of 124 miles per hour.  Cuba evacuated almost 2 million people--more than 15 percent of the  total population. One hundred thousand people were evacuated within  the first three hours. An incredible 78 percent of those evacuated  were welcomed into other people's homes. Children at boarding schools  were moved. Animals and birds were moved. No one was killed. The UN  declared this to be a model of disaster preparation.

Cuba, a country blockaded and isolated by the U.S. for 45 years has  been able to evacuate millions of people in an orderly fashion without  loss of life. Natural disasters do not have to be catastrophes.

Oil profiteering

Beyond the horrific loss of life and homes in the region, working  people everywhere will suffer as the pay more than $3.00 per gallon  for gas, as oil companies rake in record profits. In some places, gas  has reached as much as $5.00 per gallon.

Releasing oil from the Strategic Oil Reserves could easily offset the  loss of oil refineries in the region. Nearly 700 million barrels of  oil are stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and  Louisiana Gulf Coast. This reserve was established to cushion oil  markets during energy disruptions or other emergencies, and sitting on  the oil rather than releasing it only keeps the price of gas high and  ensures greater profits for the oil companies.

While George W. Bush and his friends at the Big Oil companies are  growing rich from escalating oil prices, while working people, who are  already suffering from the economic policies of the Bush  Administration, have to spend more of their shrinking paychecks to pay  for gas to get to work and school.

Venezuela offers to help while Washington refuses to act

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has demonstrated more concern for  working and poor people in the U.S. than George Bush has. Chavez has  announced that Venezuela will be offering poor people discounted gas  through its Citgo chain. 

He has also offered to send more than $1 million in oil, food, and  and equipment to the region. In addition, the Venezuelan government  is offering two mobile hospital units, each capable of assisting 150  people, 120 specialists in rescue operations, 10 water purifying  plants, 18 electricity generators of 850 KW each, 20 tons of bottled  water, and 50 tons of canned food.

A senior U.S. State Department official said he was not aware of the Venezuelan offer, and then dismissed it as "counterproductive."

The real looting: Bush Administration steals from working people to fund war and corporate greed

Rather than focusing on criminal neglect by the Federal and State  governments, the corporate media is reporting that the real danger is  looting. In an attempt to shift blame from the policies of the Bush  Administration, the news networks are demonizing the victims. In a  blatant appeal to racism, those being portrayed as “looters” on the  news are without exception black males.

Tens of thousands of poor people have been stranded by a policy of  neglect. Many are without food, fresh water, baby formula, and  medicine, and the government has refused to provide even basic relief.

The real looters are not the hungry people taking what they need from  an abandoned corporate superstore. The real crime is that they were  left in this situation by a government that puts war and corporate  profits ahead of human needs.  The Bush regime has looted billions of dollars of the people’s money,  slashing programs that provide basic necessities and robbing from  agencies that are tasked with preparing for natural disasters in order  to fund a war of conquest against the people of Iraq. There are  dangerous looters, but they are Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, not the  poor people of New Orleans trying to feed their families. It is clear  that the Bush Administration is increasingly putting the entire population of the country in growing danger by relentlessly slashing  every social program, infrastructure maintenance program, and environmental protection program.

Money for Human Needs not War!

It is the Bush Administration, and the Big Corporations it serves,  who are directly responsible for the disaster, and they, not the  working people of the region, should be responsible for rebuilding and  providing relief.  In a speech on Wednesday, President Bush said, “our hearts and prayers are with our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast who have  suffered so much from Hurricane Katrina. ”But the people of the  region need food, clothing, shelter, and jobs, not hearts and  prayers. 

He grinned as he said, “Recovery will take years,” but offered no  plan to assist in that rebuilding. The people of the area need, and  are entitled to, more than empty rhetoric and vacant smiles. The  crisis demands a massive national mobilization to meet emergency needs  and facilitate rebuilding efforts. The disaster is beyond the scope  of local authorities or private charities to handle; the Federal  government must devote its ample resources, which are now being used  to wage war, to provide immediate and long-term relief.

We call on the Bush Administration to:

Watch a video from the Convention Center in New Orleans: "Desperate  Struggle"  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612click on “Launch” under Free Video

September 10 Emergency Strategy Meeting organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition

Lang Center at the New School University
55 W. 13th St. in Manhattan
(between 5th & 6th Ave.)
1:30 - 6:00 pm

Emergency September 10 Strategy Meeting in NYC - organized by the  Troops Out Now Coalition We need a mass movement to demand money for people’s needs in the Gulf  States, not for war and occupation

Now, more than ever, it is clear that we need a massive people's  movement to stop the Bush agenda of endless war and cuts in vital  services. Join us on September 10, from 1:30 to 6:00 pm for a  National Strategy Meeting to help build a movement to Bring the Troops  Home Now and demand "Money for the Gulf States, not for War!"

Topics will include:

Hurricane Katrina : A campaign for emergency action. Help plan  national actions to demand Money for Hurricane Relief, Not for War!

Mobilizing for the September 24 National March on Washington DC
Counter-Recruiting Campaign
The Millions More Movement
Dec. 1-3 National Boycott to Shut Down the War

Donate http://iacenter.org/iacdonate.shtml to help organize against endless war.

NYC: All Out! EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION: Money for the victims of the hurricane - Not for war!

Protest at the Times Square Recruiting Office

Tomorrow Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 - 5:PM

Now more than at any other time, the people of this country are watching the tragedy unfolding in the south, and wondering about the close to 300 billion dollars that Bush has wasted on the war in Iraq , and they are saying, "No More! - this has to stop now - the war and occupation of Iraq must be ended immediately, all of the troops must be withdrawn, and all of the technology, money needed to stop the dieing and suffering must be sent to the hurricane victims immediately."

It is offensive for former Presidents Clinton and Bush to call on people to make donations to help the victims. Bush didn't say that paying for the war and occupation of Iraq would be contingent on voluntary donations; he just went ahead and stole the money from our public schools, healthcare and other social programs.

Join us tomorrow at 5:00 pm at Times Square to demand immediate relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. At the protest, activists will announce plans for a Nationwide Day of Solidarity with the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The protest tomorrow is just the beginning of a movement to fight for relief and justice for the victims of the hurricane.

The U.S government and especially the Bush Administration are guilty of criminal negligence. Government officials at every level, including the White House, have long known that the millions of people who live and work in the coastal regions of the southern part of the U.S. along the gulf of Mexico, and especially the people of New Orleans, which lies below sea level, were vulnerable to precisely the kind of disaster that it is now suffering.

It's not lost on anyone that the overwhelming majority of the victims are poor Black people. If those affected were white and affluent the government's response would be as different as night and day. Because of the race of most of the victims, the government has so far chosen to focus on criminalizing people in the street who are taking what they need to survive instead of the desperation of the thousands of people who are literally starving for water, food and medical attention.

The U.S. Federal Government, more than any government in the world, has access to unlimited resources as well as state of the art air, water and ground technology to aid in the rescue and relief operations. Yet it is clear that the unfolding human catastrophe that has killed an untold number of people, and put the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in peril was a consequence not only of a lack of preparation, but also drastic cuts in the funds needed to reinforce old and weakened structures that were suppose to protect the people of New Orleans from flooding. In the aftermath of this disaster, where there should have been a massive rescue and assistance effort mounted to save people endangered by the flood, and feed, house, and provide medical care under human conditions to victims, the government instead has stood by and allowed people to die and suffer needlessly. This injustice must end, but it only will if we stand up and demand it.

Troops Out Not Coalition http://www.troopsoutnow.org

Donate to help with organizing expenses http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html

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September 10 Emergency Strategy Meeting organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition http://www.TroopsOutNow.org

Lang Center at the New School University 55 W. 13th St. in Manhattan /(between 5th & 6th Ave.)/ 1:30 - 6:00 pm

Now, more than ever, it is clear that we need a massive people's movement to stop the Bush agenda of endless war and cuts in vital services. Join us on September 10, from 1:30 to 6:00 pm for a National Strategy Meeting to help build a movement to Bring the Troops Home Now and demand "Money for the Gulf States, not for War!"

Topics will include:

Hurricane Katrina : A campaign for emergency action Mobilizing for the September 24 National March on Washington DC Counter-Recruiting Campaign
The Millions More Movement Dec. 1-3 National Boycott to Shut Down the War

Donate http://iacenter.org/iacdonate.shtml to help organize against endless war.

From Leftbooks.com: The disaster in New Orleans

September 1, 2005--According to a February 16, 2004 article in New Orleans City Business, because of the demands of war in Iraq President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Army Corp of Engineers said was needed  to avert the flooding by Lake Pontchartrain.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for  Jefferson Parish, Louisiana told the New Orleans news publication Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq ...  Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue  for us."

Why is the U.S. government spending hundreds of billions of dollars for  war and profit, when just a fraction of that money could be used to  prevent human crises such as the flooding in New Orleans that is causing widespread death, suffering and displacement?

EVERY FEDERAL DIME ALLOCATED FOR WAR SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE SPENT FOR NEW ORLEANS RELIEF!

Every form of transport - planes, helicopters, buses, ambulances and small boats should be mobilized to the region by the federal government. Corporate property restrictions which are currently hindering this should be overruled to ensure all resources immediately be utilized.

 "Power concedes nothing without a demand ..." - Demands are needed now. Make yourself heard!

 

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