What Might Have Happened?

Today's Times gives us an interesting insight into why Katrina went from national disaster to national shitshow:

According to the administration's senior domestic security officials, the plan failed to recognize that local police, fire and medical personnel might be incapacitated.

This might seem like a flimsy enough excuse for some people, but lameness continues unabated; White House officials are now blaming Federalism for much of the debacle, citing the political heat a President might take for unnecessarily seizing control of National Guard troops.

It sounds as though Kathleen Blanco had a recourse to military action, had she been willing to set up a joint command of Guard Troops. Nevertheless, the Active Duty response was five days late. This is an unacceptable administrative failure, particularly when the politics of perception seem to be the primary motivation behind the inaction. An anonymous administration official explains to the Times:

"Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had preemptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?" asked one senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks were confidential.

The Bush administration has yet to come through with a compelling explanation for this needless loss of life. It seems crass politics may have gotten in the way of what should have been a purely humanitarian undertaking.