PamRotella.com

Hurricane Katrina: Global warming ends Crawford stand-off
[Posted 31 August 2005]

Day after day, month after month, year after year, Bush's war in Iraq drags on. In 1991, Bush's father promised America that his Iraq war wouldn't be another Vietnam. Well, no surprises -- he lied. After more than a decade of a US-enforced no-fly zone, a full-blown Iraq-Nam has emerged under Bush #2, complete with mass devastation, daily attacks, and mounting U.S. casualties.

In August, just earlier this month, one of those casualties came back to haunt our nation's out-of-touch President. A lone, grieving mother set up camp down the road from Bush's lengthy vacation in Crawford, Texas. The mother and Camp Casey, named for her son who was killed in Iraq as a soldier, drew people and cameras, bringing attention back to the Iraq war and the suffering it has caused Cindy Sheehan and every other heartsick mother like her.

Bush the Younger, afraid to face a woman he had harmed personally, fled to Utah -- a state with a predominant Mormon religion that requires its members to obey whatever government is in power at the time. After cheerleading for the war in Utah, Bush moved onto Idaho and told military units that they'd be shipped to Iraq too. Then Bush returned to his vacation at palatial Camp Moron in Crawford. Down the road, Cindy Sheehan told the press that she'd take Camp Casey on the road, and follow Bush back to Washington when he was finally done partying in the middle of a war.

It seemed Bush just couldn't escape the horror he'd caused people in Iraq, at least not if he wanted to continue vacationing. In the parade of failures that is the Bush Presidency, Camp Casey had rescued Bush from the hard questions on Karl Rove's malicious behavior -- the corruption and lies in Bush's administration that had led to the Iraq war. But rescue for Bush came in the form of a heartbroken mother, with Bush having to face the harm his failed Iraq war has caused people here in America. Bush's popularity ratings had never been lower, and Bush seemed more desperate for a diversion by the day. Yet when a rescue from Camp Casey finally came, it took the form of Bush's global failures.

Off the shore of Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico, a storm the size of the Gulf itself was brewing. It was global warming come knocking, a killer storm in a series of killer storms, in a series of years filled with killer storms, all predicted by scientists over a decade ago when Bush's father was President. Hurricane Katrina represented the global consequences of Bush's policies and the oil companies his family represents. Those consequences weren't to be outdone by the Crawford struggle between peace and war, truth and lies. Global warming threatens to at least make habitation of the Southern and Eastern United States impossible, and at most permanently extinguish life on this planet -- the end of our species and all others.

Now that New Orleans is devastated, along with its neighbors, all Bush can do is offer emergency aid. He has no plan to prevent future disasters or reverse the trend of increasing devastation. He won't even admit that global warming exists. Instead, tens of thousands of lives are ruined, hundreds are dead if not more, and Bush sees a temporary problem to solve, perhaps a photo opportunity where he can look like Santa Claus instead of an oil-snatching killer. Yet the harsh reality will march on, year after year, for everyone on the planet, as storms reach the epic proportions predicted for global warming. Coral reefs and permanent glaciers will disappear, species will become extinct, and areas with huge populations will be destroyed, including the American South. Today, one of the nicest cities in the Southern US is damaged beyond repair. It will take years to build New Orleans back up to a shell of its former self. And more cities can and will be hit in coming months and years.

Yes, Bush could take a break from the looting and pillaging that makes his family famous, and perhaps make a few hard decisions to turn this global disaster around. But does that sound like something a Bush would do? Let's see... Party, or save the planet?... Party, or save the planet?...


I'll miss you, New Orleans.



















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