Katrina and the war on terror

The death toll is coming up lower than expected (in the low 400's as of today, and not likely to reach the 10,000 predicted). The press continues to wail about the poor job FEMA has done, even after Brown was called back to Washington, and then resigned of his own accord. Charitable organizations are working in high gear to meet the many needs.

I hear people saying loudly that it's President Bush's fault for the delays in assistance from the national level, crying about the helplessness. Sure, we wish we could do more for the people hardest hit. "There, but for the grace of God, go I" applies as much now as ever. But uninformed screeching on the subject doesn't do anything to fix either the past or the future.

Through the storm after the storm, a few important points need to be made, or perhaps refreshed in our memories.

• Preparedness involves more than having a plan. The plan must also be executed. Having 2000 buses at your disposal does not guarantee safety.
• True preparedness requires flexibility, because a real crisis involves surprises.
• The rule of law cannot be ignored in time of crisis. Not by looters, and not by the President.
• Holding public office does not automatically confer expertise, presence of mind, or good judgement. Therefore, these things must be considered when selecting people for public office. Therefore, informed voting is part of being prepared. Voting for a candidate over a single issue is voting for unpreparedness.
• As much as we all like to complain about government, the law and bureaucracies, most such bodies do serve a purpose, if imperfectly, and we miss them when they are not present or fail to perform.
• Whether through terrorist attack or natural causes, there are many situations we can neither predict nor control.
• For all the posturing about which level of government is responsible and how many deaths may have resulted, the plain fact is a lot more people would have died if the levee broke because of a terrorist attack.
• While we live safer lives in the United States, our protections against disaster are still very weak. With liberty comes risk. We simply can't guard every levee, reservoir, hospital, school, power station, nuclear plant, mall, airport, hotel and internet connection against those who would do us harm.
• People are not generally good by nature. Getting along with others is a learned behavior. Some choose not to learn this, others are taught not to.
• There are, in fact, people in the world who do not respect human rights, whether the right to live, the right to believe what you want, or the right to not have their property stolen.
• If an potential attacker is willing to die to achieve his goals, he has much wider selection of ways to successfully attack you. All penalties under the law are basically ways of removing part or all of your life (freedom of movement, money you could have spent, etc.). To one willing to die, these punishments are meaningless. The only sure-fire defense against this is to kill the person before they kill you.
• War is Hell. It is not pleasant or tidy or quick or clean. People die in war.
• We are not fighting an enemy who wants something from us. He cannot be negotiated with, and will not play by our rules. Our enemy (the terrorists) want only to destroy every person who will not choose his twisted perception of Islam.
• Safety at home will only come by having less people willing to give their lives to destroy ours.

That's the world as I see it. I welcome any comments.