David Brooks Quotes
This was the most anticipated natural disaster in history.
The reference was to the New Orleans Katrina Crisis of 2005.
David Brooks, Political Journalist & Columnist, Description of John McCain, PBS News Hour, September 9, 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation shows the naivety of the Islamic terrorists about America. They assumed that because the Federal Government did not send help to New Orleans and other communities hit by the hurricane, it was because there was a shortage of military personnel to send and they took credit for tying down all the troops. They just could not accept the possibility that some American administrations were totally incompetent and were not be prepared or that an American President could appoint someone with no real qualification. Ironically, they would believe that of the Arab countries in the Middle East, but not the vaunted USA. The terrible response to Katrina had nothing to do with the shortage of troops and civilian first line responders. There were more than enough. They just were never prepared and never deployed on time.
Puerto Rico was hit by a hurricane which had a devastating effect on the infrastructure of the island. Cruz, Mayor of San Juan, was frustrated when the Federal response from FEMA and the military was very slow to materialize.
This egregiously insensitive statement was one of the reasons he was fired from heading the relief effort and then resigned from the government. He had been a political appointee of George W. Bush with no previous emergency management experience. He had been a lawyer and his management experience consisted of managing horse shows. While many blamed the President for the terrible appointment, the Senate confirmed Brown with not a single No vote, yet his lack of experience was known to the Senators.
Unlike terrorism and natural disasters like earthquakes, a hurricane is known about a week in advance and can be tracked as it makes landfall. So his view was that the prime failure of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security occurred the week earlier. In addition a few weeks before Katrina, Leibersbach lead a delegation of State Homeland Security Directors to meet with Secretary Chertoff of Homeland Security. Their message was that the reorganization of DHS has so downgraded FEMA that the nation’s capacity to deal with national disaster had been diminished as a result of the reorganizations.
Thousands of people were trapped in the New Orleans convention center without food, water, sanitary or medical facilities. A number died. While the head of FEMA claimed Federal ignorance, the plight of the people at the Superdome and the Convention Center was constantly being broadcast on the radio and television, including on location video and pleas for help. Mr. Brown’s qualifications for emergency management before he was appointed to head FEMA was to head up an organization for Arabian Horses.
The George W. Bush administration had been caught ill prepared and with the exception of the Coast Guard, was slow and inadequate in responding to the emergency.
Most scientists are of the opinion that although we cannot control the weather we can refrain from those activities that would induce more extreme climate changes. It is the extreme’s that cause the major problems. The other weather problems cause difficulties but they are manageable.
David Brooks is a conservative political and cultural commentator who writes for The New York Times. He has worked as a film critic for The Washington Times, a reporter and later op-ed editor for The Wall Street Journal, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard from its inception, a contributing editor at Newsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly, and a commentator on NPR and the PBS NewsHour.
