To the editor:

This is for the victims of 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Gulf Coast. Whether it was Muslim attackers, the U.S. government or a hurricane, one common critique keeps popping up: response time. Why is this? Do we enjoy completely ignoring fundamental questions about these tragedies?

For example, why blame Bush for his “slow response time” to Katrina? That argument – just as those about 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq – all have the same problem in common: They point to momentary decision-making and not to the big picture. By doing this, the critics, usually politicians and media pundits, get to appear tough against authority while actually diverting us from the bigger issue – which is, of course, the resources focused on the unnecessary, illegal war in Iraq.

The government can’t respond with what it does not have, and its performance has nothing to do with a lack of concern for the poor people of the Gulf states. It has to do with spending $300 billion on a war based on wrong promises about WMD that were supposed to be threatening our very existence. However, everybody is watching the tragedy accelerate to epic proportions in Louisiana, and the old and tired excuse about diverting much needed resources to Iraq to liberate people from a dictator we supported during the 1980s ain’t gonna cut it any longer.

The war’s price tag will continue to climb, and meanwhile, we can’t even help our own drowning, starving, suffering, frightened fellow Americans in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Chris White,

Lawrence