As the country comes to grips with its newest national tragedy in the form of Hurricane Katrina, many may have forgotten the passing of the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks three days ago. Though Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11 attacks came at the hands of two uniquely different actors, by juxtaposing the two, the average observer can easily see how the Bush administration has failed this country and its citizens when it matters most.
After winning the presidency in 2000, Mr. Bush and his defense team publicly pondered the effectiveness of a ballistic missile defense system. In fact, it became a central tenet of Mr. Bush's national defense strategy. Though Ronald Reagan had endorsed this "Star Wars" system 12 years before (albeit without much public or scientific support), the Bush administration felt compelled to follow in the Gipper's footsteps and allocate millions of dollars for a similar system. This infatuation with an anachronistic Cold War-era project and the administration's early insistence on invading Iraq certainly contributed to the relative ease with which the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were conducted.
Former counter-terrorism advisor Richard A. Clarke has repeatedly discussed how the Bush administration failed to heed his warnings concerning significant threats from al-Qaeda. In an interview with "60 Minutes" Clark said, "I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they [got] back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the preceding eight years."
Clarke has also discussed how Mr. Bush, in their very first encounter a day after the Sept. 11 attacks, instructed him to find a link between Iraq and the airplane hijackers. The administration's dogmatic and unrelenting belief that Iraq played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks has gone unfounded. Its insistence on linking the war on terror — a legitimate, worthy and necessary enterprise — with Iraq has led to the meaningless deaths of thousands of our troops and Iraqi civilians. Its refusal to incorporate objective information and intelligence that doesn't substantiate its claims has led to an unstable, chaotic vacuum in the Middle East.
One would think that, after Sept. 11, the Bush administration would do everything in its power to prevent another national disaster. Yet, with the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Bush once again failed to heed visible, apparent warning signs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency listed a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three most serious threats to the United States in 2001. Numerous scientific and engineering publications, including National Geographic and Civil Engineering Magazine, all produced pieces highlighting the devastating effects a hurricane would have on Louisiana and Mississippi.
From 2001 to 2005, the Bush administration cut approxiametely 50 percent of the budgetary requests from the Army Corps of Engineers for levee-augmentation projects in the New Orleans area. Citing budgetary restraints caused by the war in Iraq, the Bush administration neglected to fully support and fund the creation of levees that may have prevented the flooding of New Orleans. It's the funding of a war that has not enhanced the security of a single American individual that allowed for the destruction of one of America's most lively and idiosyncratic cities.
With every crisis that this country and Mr. Bush have faced in the last five years, the president has failed miserably every step of the way. By turning a blind eye to significant intelligence, Mr. Bush failed to destroy al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden before they unleashed terror in the heart of New York City. And by negligently ignoring the numerous reports detailing the possible devastation of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast, Mr. Bush was unable to stem the destruction and chaos that has ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi.
Our country deserves the best and the brightest in its executive office and at all helms of significant governmental agencies. While some may tremble at the thought of working for the government, our country deserves and needs competent, intelligent and pragmatic leadership — qualities that the current occupant consistently fails to exhibit in great times of crisis.
Josh Moskowitz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.
