More on The Corner

Jonah Goldberg just posted an e-mail that I sent to him regarding an earlier post.

Here's my e-mail to Jonah.

Jonah -

I can't believe that you posted your "Navy Commander" reader's
comments without comment. A few of his assertions defy commonsense.

"Yes, things went wrong but, believe it or not, many more things
went right. "

What things? What single thing on a local level went right? The
decision to evacuate the city? It was a day late. The ability to
evacuate those who had no means to do so themselves? No existent.
The ability to maintain control of looting? Nope.

"The First Responders moved in and did their job."

They did? By what measure? What discernible effect did the job of
the first responders (I assume he means the local authorities) have on
the current situation? For instance, would it be safe right now to
drop in food and water to the convention center, with no stabilizing
federal force pre-positioned to control the crowd? If not why not?
And whose fault would that be?

The fact is that the the scene on the ground is a total and
complete failure of the local and state authorities having any
foresight and ability to protect and defend their own constituents.
The fact that the federal government has been caught flat-footed by
the local authorities complete inability to maintain any kind of
order is not that surprising. I don't think anybody could have
anticipated the utter chaos the local authorities are not only
complicit in, but completely responsible for. The failure here is on
a local level, plain and simple. Simply put, it is not unreasonable
for the federal goverment to expect the locals to hold down the fort
for a few days until the cavalry can arrive.

And of course the federal cavalry will arrive. And of course, I
and all my friends in all 50 states will be paying for the bail out
and the clean up and the rebuilding. Something that could have been
prevented if the local planners in a city built several feet below
sea level had had the incredible forsight required to prevent or at
the very least prepare for the aftermath of a massive flood. Gosh,
who could possibly have foretold the possibility of a hurricane that
causes massive flooding in N.O.? I mean, what are the chances?

I was responding to this.