[Corporations] FPIF News | Hurricane Katrina & War in Iraq

[International Relations Center]

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New at FPIF
“Working to make the United States a more responsible global leader and
partner”
http://www.fpif.org/

September 6, 2005
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Introducing the latest policy analysis from Foreign Policy In Focus

Hurricane Katrina and the War in Iraq  
By Stephen Zunes  

As it is begins to appear that the death toll in southeastern Louisiana
and southern Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina may surpass that of
9/11, questions are once again being raised regarding the Bush
administration’s distorted views as to what constitutes national
security. 

Much of the criticism thus far has focused on the failure of
authorities to evacuate the tens of thousands of low-income residents
in New Orleans who lacked the means to leave for higher ground inland
and the slowness and inefficiency of the federal response following the
rupture of the levees protecting the city, much of which lies below sea
level. 

Still others have noted the growing evidence that the increase in
recent years in the frequency of such mega-hurricanes as Katrina is a
result of global warming. The Bush administration has aggressively
undermined international efforts to forcefully address such potentially
catastrophic changes in the world’s climate as a result of carbon
dioxide emissions in the United States and other industrialized
nations. 

It also appears that the Bush administration’s decision to undercut the
authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a
once-independent unit of government, by subsuming it into the
Department of Homeland Security – with its over-emphasis on the threat
from international terrorism – limited FEMA’s ability to better prepare
for the long-predicted scenario of disastrous flooding resulting from a
major hurricane striking New Orleans. 

Perhaps the decision by the Bush administration which most directly
contributed to the high numbers of unnecessary deaths, however, was the
2003 invasion of Iraq. 

By providing shelter for those fleeing the devastated areas, making
financial contributions to relief efforts, and other measures, the
American people have once again demonstrated enormous caring and
generosity. Such efforts will and should continue. However, this
laudable energy must also be focused on holding accountable the
politicians of both parties who – out of their eagerness to invade an
oil-rich country on the other side of the globe – allowed so many of
their fellow Americans to suffer and die needlessly.  

Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus (online
at http://www.fpif.org), is a professor of Politics at the University
of San Francisco.  

See new FPIF commentary online at:
http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/491

With printer-friendly pdf version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0509katrina.pdf

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For media inquiries:	Emily Schwartz Greco, emily at ips-dc.org 
202-297-5412
				Kyle Johnson, kyle at irc-online.org
505-388-0208 

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