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Wednesday, 21 June 2006 04:17 |
 Hurricane season is upon us once again and many on the Gulf Coast have much to be concerned about.
Though the Army Corps of Engineers has finished rebuilding the New Orleans levee system, independent analysts have reported that the new system will only withstand a Class 2 hurricane. Hurricane Katrina was a Class 4 when it devastated the city.
Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is
predicting that 2006 will again be a record-setting year for storms,
with an estimated eight to 10 hurricanes anticipated, at least half of
which are expected to exceed Class 3.
We wonder what Gulf Coast residents are thinking now.
Perhaps they are considering what pieces of debris might make usable life boats.
Or they might be considering where to move to that is a little bit drier and safer.
Like Iraq, perhaps?
Granted, beheadings and civil war are staples of everyday life in Iraq.
But at least your home is unlikely to be flooded by another series of
devastating hurricanes. And it is easy to find the National Guard
there. You just need to go find the nearest oil pipeline, where
Louisiana??s brave men and women stand armed, protecting the freedom of
Iraqis to export crude petroleum.
One solution would be to export Iraq??s other vast natural resource in
the service of hurricane protection. By which, of course, we mean
sand.
Sand is plentiful in Iraq. Why not put the troops to work building sand bags to reinforce the levees on the Gulf?
Better yet, why not let the National Guard do its job ?? protecting the homeland.
When America is facing the threat of another devastating hurricane
season and thousands of people are still displaced ??living,
essentially, in refugee camps ?? it is incumbent on federal officials to
work for the people who elected it.
We urge the Bush administration to redivert some of its efforts in Iraq
towards constructing better levees and rebuilding the vast sections of
the Gulf that still lay in desolation.
And by all means, bring the Guard home to do its job. Homeland security begins at home.
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