Dougherty Arts Center
Bush Administration's Misplaced Priorities
RECEIVED Thu., Aug. 31, 2006
Dear Editor,
Over the last several days, the newspapers and television stations have been revisiting the region hit by Katrina, focusing on conditions today in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Bush will visit New Orleans on Tuesday (Aug. 29) to do and say or proclaim what? Just days after he made assertive and vehement statements about staying in Iraq, regardless, because he said, and I paraphrase, if we leave Iraq there will be chaos there (what is there now?).
A Web site named PushBackCNN.com tracks the cost of the war in Iraq by the second. As of this minute (Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 12:53pm) $310,559,000,000 have been spent in Iraq. That is roughly $233,280,000 per day.
Just imagine what we would be seeing on TV if the dollars to pay the daily cost of the war in Iraq had been available for the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast during the last 365 days.
Well, as long as we are imagining, can you imagine how many lives, homes, and families could have been saved or spared the nightmare of the Superdome and Convention Center if the government had deployed troops to the area as quickly as troops were deployed to Iraq? Why is it the administration can get troops to the other side of the planet faster than they could get them to New Orleans?
Over the last several days, the newspapers and television stations have been revisiting the region hit by Katrina, focusing on conditions today in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Bush will visit New Orleans on Tuesday (Aug. 29) to do and say or proclaim what? Just days after he made assertive and vehement statements about staying in Iraq, regardless, because he said, and I paraphrase, if we leave Iraq there will be chaos there (what is there now?).
A Web site named PushBackCNN.com tracks the cost of the war in Iraq by the second. As of this minute (Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 12:53pm) $310,559,000,000 have been spent in Iraq. That is roughly $233,280,000 per day.
Just imagine what we would be seeing on TV if the dollars to pay the daily cost of the war in Iraq had been available for the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast during the last 365 days.
Well, as long as we are imagining, can you imagine how many lives, homes, and families could have been saved or spared the nightmare of the Superdome and Convention Center if the government had deployed troops to the area as quickly as troops were deployed to Iraq? Why is it the administration can get troops to the other side of the planet faster than they could get them to New Orleans?
Mary Patrick
