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"Pompous American Politicians!!!!!"

The richest nation in the world has an area the size of the UK in ruins and they can do nothing to save the starving dying black people of the Gulf coast.

I know why, it's the wrong Gulf and not as much immediate need as securing the oil fields of Iraq. But right now, I'm sure some of those people would rather be in the current dregs of Iraq than be abandoned by their government in their own country.

There have been no food drops, no water drops and even a limited number of army reinforcements to protect desperate and innocent people from themselves killing each other and looting. I'm loving the spin by the media on looters, by the way. The true disgusting people in this situation are the media who are using fuel and valuable life-saving transport such as helicopters to take videos of people crying for help, they should put those helicopters to better use and realise that all the looters want is a bottle of water or juice and a pack of crisps or a Mars bar.

But the creme de la creme of all American arrogance came from a Louisianna politician who was quoted as saying "This is only what I can imaging Hiroshima was like after the bomb". I hate this from Americans. How can the innocent deaths of people at the hands of mother nature be compared to the Americans dropping nuclear weapons on a condensed area built up with wooden houses and the poorest of the poor in 1940's Japan.

Many of those people would still be alive today if it was not for the American government. Many of the dying today would be alive in 50 years time, if it wasn't for the arrogence of the American government, that's the only link and it's disgusting.

Maybe now America will take their elected officials and elections seriously and not as some big popularity contest, too many lives depend on it.

I've been pretty disgusted at Bush about this. Speaking of zero tolerance on crime and shoot-to-kill when thousands are dying...

What's more important, people scavenging (for survival or not) or getting people out of the area to safety? Hey, here's a revelation, if these people were evacuated, they couldn't be looting the area could they? But no, Bush seems ready to try and take the moral high ground saying how it's disgusting people are looting at a time of national disaster... I've not been there and seen for myself, but I'd suspect most are only looting food, water, etc. I'm sure others are looking to make a profit from this disaster in one way or another, but maybe we should wait and see which of GW's mates in the construction industry he gives the (very profitable I'd imagine) task of rebuilding the city.

It seems a ridiculous case of holier-than-thou attitude. How is it wrong to 'steal' something necessary for survival? Especially in a situation such as this where the sellers of the goods have abandoned them and they will undoubtedly rot otherwise. Even stealing items other than food that may be intended for profiting... It's not particularly 'good' but I fail to see what all the fuss is about. Most of the things being stolen are probably water damaged, or left by people who fled and have probably resigned to the fact that whatever possessions they left are gone anyway. It's not a great situation to have, but I fail to see why such importance is being put on looting.

Bah. There obviously is a need for some form of order, but efforts should be concentrated on getting people out to safety, or at least getting supplies to them. As it is, they're going to inflame the situation further with a shoot-to-kill policy on people who are most likely just trying to survive.

The thing about Hiroshima is that they wanted to drop the bomb to see what effect it would have but of course it's not like they didnt offer peace, though I still think they were far too quick to use it. So instead of 1000s of american soldiers dying, 100,000+ mainly women and children (because of the war) had to die instead.

My favourite item so far has been Bush's refusal to consider assistance from the UN.
They had the Undersecretary being interviewed on CNN today and he said they were only to glad to send whatever help they could do, but so far they had been refused. And the reporter said Bush "visibly blanched" at the idea.

And you know exactly why that is.
Bush rubbished the UN, called them a neutered concept and belittled them in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. There's no way in hell he's going to agree to let them help. In the meantime, as stated below, the governor has issued shoot-to-kill orders to the National Guard & Army trying to "keep order".
Even the media, usually sycophantic, are questioning Bush's actions and interest so far.
And yes, tragedy and loss of life etc etc blah blah, but there is a twisted irony in seeing a country that has demolished Iraq and Afghanistan reduced by rubble by nothing more than wind.

*shrugs*
I'll be interested to see how those hardline Christians that proclaim Jesus loves them explain this one. Cos to me, it looks like Jesus is smiting them pretty hard right about now.

On the point of the armed national guards, the reports I've heard have suggested some wider problems of disorder from the lack of police presence, including non-survival theft and even rape.

That's got to take a pretty warped mind:
"Hey, the whole city has been destroyed, everyones' dying and there's no functional governmental infrastructure. What a perfect opportunity to go rape people."


However, that said there did seem to be all too much talk of the national guard shooting looters too. The american armed forces have a reputation for killing innocent civilians without even trying. When they have an excuse it could get nasty.



On a lighter note, if you just consider the property damage, it looks absolutely incredible. I mean, this is the kind of stuff people spend millions of dollars recreating in movies - stricken wasted cities, streets submerged in water, buildings leveled, roads torn up, bridges shattered and warped. Casino boats beached on top of a hotels (well, one).
Just to see a city in that condition is something else.

Obviously the human cost is terrible, but the property damage is still a sight!

Apparantly you can go on a holiday tour to chernobyl, and it's like a ghost town, with wild dogs and barren shells of buildings.

Yeah, it was a bit of a rant :D.

I just saw red when i heard that link to Hiroshima by an elected US official.

Stupid, stupid person.

I have to say, I doubt if it's because they're black. It may be a predominantly black area, but there are very many white people there too. But then in this day and age, the race card are always among the first things brought up.

Would it have been different if Katrina had hit elsewhere? I doubt it, but as she didn't, we'll never know.

I think the biggest problem is that no-one in the US either had any idea, or truly believed, just how much devastation this hurricane was going to cause. They simply were not prepared for the aftermath.

I agree, though, about the Hiroshima comment. Those killed by Katrina are just a small drop in the ocean (no pun intended) compared to those killed by the US bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And let's not forget, until Bush was pressed by Blair, the US had donated a relative pittance to the tsunami appeal.

If the Us government can't help and are shooting people desperate for food and water.

I doubt I can do anything to help the humanitarian effort so far away.

A catastrophe of this magnitude in the poorest of locations in the US is a true devestation. Perhaps instead of condemning a nation attempting to recover and survive, you should do something more constructive for humanities sake. This thread is just dripping with your hate.

What the world needs less of are finger-pointers in the wake of a catastrophe. What shame..

One comment i read pretty much summed it up for me

*Our President can send millions of dollars of aid to all these different countries but when it's us who need help he's nowhere to be seen, he's just left us here to die*

Probably up in the oval office looking at a map trying to find another country his daddy didn't like to wage war on.

I was going to start a post on this before seeing this thread.

Pretty insane if you ask me.

To be entirely honest, at the start of the storms life, I really didn't pay much attention to the story. The America<->Hurricane ordeal is kind of the usual thing you see once a year and so it doesn't brush off as being serious or spontaneous.

It was only the aftermath in which I started to take notice, the news footage is getting more horrifying by the day. Thousands of people stranded and hungry, no one knows of the fatality count and disease is spreading.

One news reporter even said he heard a small gun fight around the corner just before he fed back his piece to the news room.

Bush's ignorancy to assisting in this disaster is a joke.

Tsunami 2004 - Assistance was sent immediatly to a country thousands of miles away.
Katrina 2005 - Hardly anything. On home soil. It's surprisingly stupid.