Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Now What? Bush has quickly gotten rid of a top administrator largely believed to have ineptly handled the federal disaster relief effort. And now the president has taken full responsibility for any federal mishaps during the Katrina rescue.

Let's see whether critics ease their complaints, especially since they always accuse Bush of not admitting that anything goes wrong or punishing incompetence in his administration.

I'm still not sure what people were expecting to happen when we were suddenly forced to evacuate an entire U.S. city, after it had been completely flooded, for the first time in history. Most major cities' traffic grinds to a hault at 5 p.m. every weekday as workers flea to the suburbs. Yet somehow we were supposed to empty out an impoverished city after its transportation infrastructure had been decimated.

Hopefully we can get some lessons out of this for next time. But I honestly believe that when the next big event happens, we'll be on our own for awhile before our government can come and rescue us, no matter who's in charge.