Katrina.
This is an excerpt from a comment I made on someone else's journal in reply to someone calling the government incompetent because of the current tragedy in NOLA. Frankly the whole sad situation has me tense in the first place, and hearing people manufacture a way to use it as a political tool -- yet another excuse to lambast Bush -- frankly has me sick. Absolutely disgusted.
I want these people to be helped, too. Horrible as the situation is, though, as long as there are troublemakers shooting at the rescuers, the other people are going to have to either find a way to stop the troublemakers on their own or else shut up and wait for the people who can. There aren't a ton of viable options in a tragedy like this, and calling the government incompetent because we weren't prepared to instantly teleport military personnel into the area to stop rioting citizens is frankly irresponsible.
What if we *were* ready at any moment to use military force against rioters? What if we had a whole military unit sitting there in reserve just waiting for the moment to go anywhere in the country to quell a riot by a full-on armed populace? Frankly if the government tried anything of the sort, then there would instantly be hordes of people bitching loudly about the money being spent to prepare a military to shoot at our own citizens without any sign that such a thing would be needed. And I'd bet dollars to donuts the core people bitching would be the same people bitching now that we weren't ready for it.
Frankly there are too damned many people who have decided that they're going to find ill in *anything* the government tries to do, and they're going to find a way to blame anything that's wrong in the country on either the action or the inaction of the government, and I for one am sick and tired of it. I'll be the first to admit that the government has issues. I sure as hell didn't vote for Bush. But frankly saying that this looting is happening because our government is incompetent is bullshit. Complete and utter. And I won't stand for it.
This looting is happening for one reason and one reason only: because certain sick individuals are using the chaos of the disaster as an excuse to pick up arms and bully and threaten anyone they choose without respect or regard for any higher power than force. It's continuing because we've optimistically assumed that our citizens are basically sane and good people, and so we've *not* been chomping at the bit to go shoot them, so it's taking some time to mobilize a force strong enough to control the situation. It's continuing because our *competent* government has realized that rushing in with anything less than that sufficient force would not solve anything but rather increase the chaos.
It takes time and effort and organization to save tens of thousands of lives, and our government is doing what they can. The civilian population have come out in droves with words and actions of support. If you think they could be doing it better then shut up and help them do it; don't just sit around and bitch about government incompetence.
I won't be on LJ again until Monday. I'm not disabling comments: comment if you will; I'm not going to be around to respond. I sincerely doubt I'll respond when I get back, because frankly any attempt at justification will likely just disgust me more.
(LJ Spellchecker of the Day, dammit: teleport -> TELNET)
I want these people to be helped, too. Horrible as the situation is, though, as long as there are troublemakers shooting at the rescuers, the other people are going to have to either find a way to stop the troublemakers on their own or else shut up and wait for the people who can. There aren't a ton of viable options in a tragedy like this, and calling the government incompetent because we weren't prepared to instantly teleport military personnel into the area to stop rioting citizens is frankly irresponsible.
What if we *were* ready at any moment to use military force against rioters? What if we had a whole military unit sitting there in reserve just waiting for the moment to go anywhere in the country to quell a riot by a full-on armed populace? Frankly if the government tried anything of the sort, then there would instantly be hordes of people bitching loudly about the money being spent to prepare a military to shoot at our own citizens without any sign that such a thing would be needed. And I'd bet dollars to donuts the core people bitching would be the same people bitching now that we weren't ready for it.
Frankly there are too damned many people who have decided that they're going to find ill in *anything* the government tries to do, and they're going to find a way to blame anything that's wrong in the country on either the action or the inaction of the government, and I for one am sick and tired of it. I'll be the first to admit that the government has issues. I sure as hell didn't vote for Bush. But frankly saying that this looting is happening because our government is incompetent is bullshit. Complete and utter. And I won't stand for it.
This looting is happening for one reason and one reason only: because certain sick individuals are using the chaos of the disaster as an excuse to pick up arms and bully and threaten anyone they choose without respect or regard for any higher power than force. It's continuing because we've optimistically assumed that our citizens are basically sane and good people, and so we've *not* been chomping at the bit to go shoot them, so it's taking some time to mobilize a force strong enough to control the situation. It's continuing because our *competent* government has realized that rushing in with anything less than that sufficient force would not solve anything but rather increase the chaos.
It takes time and effort and organization to save tens of thousands of lives, and our government is doing what they can. The civilian population have come out in droves with words and actions of support. If you think they could be doing it better then shut up and help them do it; don't just sit around and bitch about government incompetence.
I won't be on LJ again until Monday. I'm not disabling comments: comment if you will; I'm not going to be around to respond. I sincerely doubt I'll respond when I get back, because frankly any attempt at justification will likely just disgust me more.
(LJ Spellchecker of the Day, dammit: teleport -> TELNET)