Doing Nothing in New Orleans

Professor Douglas Brinkley published an opinion piece in yesterday's Washington Post, which has this premise:

"Why are volunteers practically the only ones working to reconstruct homes in communities that may never again have sewage service, garbage collection or electricity?

"Eventually, the volunteers' altruism turns to bewilderment and finally to outrage. They've been hoodwinked. The stalled recovery can't be blamed on bureaucratic inertia or red tape alone. Many volunteers come to understand what I've concluded is the heartless reality: The Bush administration actually wants these neighborhoods below sea level to die on the vine."

I think an argument can be made that New Orleans should be allowed to wither. The city is sinking below sea level and, as sea level rises due to global warming, New Orleans is going to become untenable and the surrounding wetlands are disappearing, largely because of the extremely short-sighted cutting of canals through the wetlands.

But if that is the choice we, as a nation, are going to make, to abandon New Orleans, we owe it to the people of New Orleans to have the discussion. The passive-aggressive tactic of the Bush Administration, to say they support New Orleans while doing everything they can under the table to bring about the opposite result, is nothing other than cowardice.

Which is a common thread of the Bush Administration.