Reply #6: Oh I agree that this was preventable [View All]

[kenny blankenship]

but you see what leading exponents of the the Cult Of Bush (C.O.B.) are saying to spin this catastrophe.
The Corps of Engineers can only do what they are given resources to do. The repairs and improvements were projected and planned and the cost was also projected in federal budgets when Bush came into office. His priorities can't comprehend spending on infrastructure items unless they are directly related to weapon-systems, or helping oil, mineral, and timber companies extract natural wealth from the land more rapidly.
Public safety particularly of cities is outside his sphere of concern.
Perhaps now after witnessing the horrific destruction of New Orleans he could follow a discussion about flood control measures, and be persuaded to see the value of saving the city and its important role as a point of importation, if not the value of saving lives.

Not only was the in-place flood control infrastructure allowed to degrade, but the Corps clearly didn't have what it needed to address (more or less inevitable) emergencies like this one. Everyone knows the danger to New Orleans comes from the possibility of failing levees. This exact danger has been a subject of a lot of talk and study since the terrible flooding on the Mississippi in 1993-4. The Army Corps knows all about this and they have surely "war-gamed" what to do in the event of failure. Monday morning was the day of the BIG GAME. And it turned out they didn't have nearly the manpower or material to win. As with the decision to let the infrastructure continue to decay, lack of support and understanding from the Executive Branch has to be cited for this flood spiralling into an epic sized, city-killing disaster.