Firing Mike Brown is Not Enough {Criminal Negligence Started at the To}

[RedEarth]

Criminal Negligence Started at the Top
Firing Mike Brown is Not Enough
By NORMAN SOLOMON

Calls for firing Michael Brown are understandable. Aptly described as "the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA" by columnist Maureen Dowd a few days ago, he's an easy and appropriate target.

President Bush met with Brown last Friday and publicly told him: "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie."

In the grisly wake of the hurricane, Brown's job performance cannot be separated from Bush's job performance. To similar deadly effect, the president has brought to bear on people in New Orleans the same qualities that he has inflicted on people in Iraq -- refusal to acknowledge basic realities, lethally misplaced priorities, lack of compassion (cue the guitar), and overarching arrogance.

The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week.

Estimates of the death toll in New Orleans are now in the vicinity of 10,000 people. Whatever the number, many would be alive today if the federal government had given minimal priority to evacuation of those who had no way of exiting the city.

Now, key issues involve accountability and decency.

We should force a genuine national debate on whether George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are fit to be president and vice president of the United States. They should be held accountable.

http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon09062005.html