In the early hours of Hurricane Katrina, George Bush continued to strum a guitar in one more photo op. He was seemingly unaware of the catastrophe that was unfolding. Reliable sources have stated that Bush is the first President in living memory that doesn’t read newspapers or watch the news. Children watching national news broadcasts knew of the horrific events taking place on the Gulf Coast. Apparently, Bush didn’t. Either he didn’t know or he knew and felt no sense of urgency. Four days later, the first aid, of any consequence, began to trickle into New Orleans. It was just a drop in a huge bucket. Congressional and independent investigators should leave no stone unturned as they look into what took the federal government so long to respond in any serious fashion. Millions of Americans are doing what they can to aid the survivors. They got it. George Bush still hasn’t. He says he wants to “lead an investigation into what went right and what went wrong”. Fortunately, Richard Nixon didn’t lead the investigation into Watergate. In the White House, was the problem incompetence? Was it lack of leadership? Was it classism? Was it racism? To one extent or another, it was all of the above. While families were stranded atop their homes, while mothers and fathers were drowning in contaminated water, while babies were going without water or food, while elders lay dying on hot then cold streets and overpasses, George Bush seemed to be in a state of suspended animation. The citizens of New Orleans looked “compassionate conservatism” squarely in its face and found it to be a false face, hidden by old and dingy white sheets. Through New Orleans, ghosts of the Confederacy marched bringing death and destruction. George W. Bush, Selected President of the United States, a small man on a big white horse, rode with his chest stuck out at the head of the procession.

Investigators should take a look into survivors accounts of hearing an explosion just before a sudden and dramatic increase in flood waters, as well as information uncovered by a series of articles in New Orleans’ most read newspaper, the Times-Picayune. The articles suggest that millions of dollars designated for reinforcing the floodwalls and levees, in New Orleans, were diverted to the war in Iraq. We now know Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, had nothing to do with the 9/11attacks, and had not gone to Niger to obtain nuclear material. The Bush administration’s continuing fixation on Iraq is irrational. It’s not worth the extraordinary waste of human life and human resources. And it’s certainly not worth the 5 billion dollars a month being paid by taxpayers. That money and those resources, including the National Guard, could be put to better use in this country.

The United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq has no moral or legal footing, as is the case with all wars of aggression. But to divert life protecting domestic resources to that war was a criminal act. It was a crime that helped open the door to the most deadly part of one of the worst natural disasters in American history. In the name of “protecting the homeland” the Bush administration’s wrongheaded obsession with war and Iraq has damaged America’s economy, cost thousand of lives, and brought misery to millions of people both here and abroad. While the poorest of the poor were dying, we watched Bush and others from his administration mouth clichés. They reminded this writer of Caligula or Nero, rich Roman dimwits, isolated, obsessed, distant from reality, posing as great leaders, while standing deluded and pitiful, naked before the world. Yes, the response was not adequate or up to the task and neither is the Bush administration. How can Bush claim to be leading the world, when it’s self-evident that he’s unqualified to lead the United States? Bill Clinton faced impeachment for far lesser crimes.

Editor’s Note: Lloyd C. Daniel is a writer, an educator, a former member of Missouri’s House of Representatives, and a founding member of the National Black United Front. His website address is www.lloyddaniel.info