Letter: Response was too little, too late

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 9:57 a.m.

The ineptness of the Bush administration will now be chronicled in monumental historic terms. A war, halfway around the world, that was based on fabricated information and sold at the United Nations as a threat to world security. An unimaginable rise in the national debt and a growing deficit in the nation's balance of trade. Only to be followed by the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina.

In the current crisis, the ineptness of this administration began with the appointment of a political crony to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It took the administration and the president days to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster.

"This is not the time for the blame game," Bush said while attacking the local government officials for their responses. He could not comprehend that the primary response to a multistate disaster of this magnitude is the responsibility of FEMA.

In its continuing effort to salvage some good will out of the situation, the Bush administration sent Vice President Dick Cheney to assess the damage. Far too little, far too late. In any other form of government, an election would be called for and the populace would throw Bush and his top staff members out of office.

RAY HARBERT