Despite a lack of evidentiary support, my uninformed opinion is that the West is very friendly with many oil-producing countries of vast reserves, including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Brunei.. And I have no problems mounting an invasion to gain control over assets of strategic importance *IF* that is the clearly stated reason for the war itself and justified by the demand needs of one nation and the belligerent non-supply of another.

But that is clearly not the case in the world right now as I see it. And I just don't like being lied to.

Molina, I'm glad you pointed this out. I have felt very comfortable posting opinions that would have opened me to personal attack on every other site on the Internet. We have a very good cross-section of the breadth of people, yet seem to have found all the reasonable ones. How fortunate, indeed.

Tets, you're doing fine. No one really has a handle on the entire geopolitical view, except maybe Henry Kissinger, but he seems to have disappeared. Whatever happened to that "little Kraut", as he was called back in Watergate days? He was a genius at this stuff.

Speaking of the 70s, anyone who didn't live through those times--it's deja vu all over again for us old folks. Gas lines, sticker shock, inflation, loss of faith in the government...here we go again.

Benjamin Disreali said, "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it." True, and it makes me crazy.

CJ

I must agree with Tetsuo and the Monk, my British friends who see our federal government so clearly from afar. Today, finally, the real federal response is totally underway. The mismanagement at all levels is appalling and did not have to happen.

When Camille, another smaller but deadly hurricane, hit New Orleans in 1969, President Nixon had federal regular Army troops in there on the ground in 48 hours.

In the past, I worked on disaster recovery, studied it, and wrote a term paper. The predictable phases of recovery are known to all disaster researchers but seemed to come as a great surprise to FEMA and our government. Today, Saturday, things are finally coming together. This is the worst tradedy in modern American history. The short term story...last week...is of chaos, looting, communication breakdowns, rumor, anger, and no central command and control.

That was last week. Starting today we are going to see a wonderful uplifting American response. The fund raising, volunteers, private sector, and donations from all over the world will warm the heart. This is a great country. Now we will show it.

Well said, Johnny.

We'll never know how many died who didn't have to die. All of us who have lived in the South since Camille have known this day would come. I think it was Agnes that gave New Orleans a real whack many years ago, and everyone knew what would happen if another, larger storm came. As they knew it would. Someday. Last week.

CJ

Okay, I've had it. Yesterday I told myself that I wasn't going to join it, but I can't bite my tongue any longer. My thoughts in bullet form:

-I started this thread as a way for BTPrs to perhaps organize themselves to help out with the relief effort. I have given 25% of my August winnings and I'm doing the same in Sept. I've organized my company and we are contributing to the relief effort in Dallas. Some BTPs are doing similiar efforts. I did NOT start this thread to create a forum where people and non-US citizens could take pock shots at the US government! If you are offering up criticism, that's fine, but I hope you are doing your part and donating time or money. Anything different pretty much undermines the point of this thread and I say shame on you.

- I also think that the cricism of the government is DEFINITELY premature and a bit too harsh. When I read forum posts or see CNN reports that are solely focused on answering the question, "who's to blame," I become irate as we should at least wait to start pointing fingers until the crisis has abated. We don't even have all the facts yet. Assigning blame is an act of closure, and this thing is far from near closure.

Also, in my opinion those that are criticizing the lack of timliness in the government response are living in a fictional world not based on facts.

1)Katrina hit Florida first, everyone including news networks thought it was pretty much over, AND THEN it turned into the gulf and turned into this massive storm in just a few days. Here is a link to a news article on that day, notice how very little is mentioned or hinted at it continuing on to hit NO. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... al_weather It was a surprise people!!! No government can marshal resources on the scale needed to handle this catastrophe when its a surprise. You're basically talking about mobilizing the army and all its infrastructure (supplies, helicopters, etc.). You can't do that in 48 hours when its a surprise. I'm not even taking into account the fact that many of the residents chose to stay because huricanes in the past didn't do THIS much damage. It's unprecedented.

2) Let's just forget fact #1, where do you send the resources? New Orleans? But wait, what about Gulfport and Biloxi that are completely wipped out? Let's say you focus on NO. How do you get resources there when there are no navigable roads? How do you set up aid stations, when there is no way to get there? I heard a CNN reporter say that some leaders were criticising why they just didn't drop MREs from the sky to feed the hungry. Of course, that wouldn't start a riot in a marshall law zone would it? Please... no government on earth now or in the past could have been able to effectively bring aid to those people instantaneously. Governments simply don't work that fast.

Tim