Comments on: 4 Years

By: SayUncle » The obligatory 9/11 post

SayUncle » The obligatory 9/11 post — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:28:33 +0000

[...] 2005: It was four years ago today. What�s changed? Well, we�re actually worse at dealing with a national tragedy, evidenced by Katrina. And quicker to trample liberties. [...]

By: Nylarthotep

Nylarthotep — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:23:06 +0000

I don’t think I agree with the doing worse with the national tragedy. Considering that the hurricane struck three states and was very devistating, I’d say that the response wasn’t bad. Maybe not as fast as the idealists like, but still fairly quick. Isolated areas like NOLA shouldn’t be used as a measure of the overall effort. FEMA bureacrats definitely bumbled around, but what they did have in place was in some cases further screwed up by the local/state authorities. But then, FEMA isn’t a first response agency. First responders are supposed to secure and rescue. Then groups like FEMA are supposed to come in for the clean up/recovery effort.

As for trampling liberties, seems like the Fed let the states fail by not declaring marshal law per the Insurection act. They tried to help, and the state on LA stopped the primary FEMA responders of the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. I suppose you can view the PATRIOT act as trodding on liberties, but, sadly, it doesn’t look like to much of the population cares very much.

By: countertop

countertop — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:28:32 +0000

Uh Tam, we may have started bringing the boys home by the end of 45, but it is worth pointing out that we have continued to maintain VERY sizable contingents of troops in both Japan and Germany over the last 60 years.

By: Tam

Tam — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 02:33:36 +0000

FWIW: Four years after December 7th 1941, we’d occupied Berlin and Tokyo and were bringing the boys home…

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 22:55:12 +0000

I dunno. I think we might have done pretty well, at least on the national level:

http://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/19000/

It’s one thing to say that help didn’t arrive as fast as you’d like. It’s another to say that help arrives faster than it ever has before, and that nobody on earth could have done a better job. All of these things can be true at the same time.