The Trail of Mismanagement

WSJ. A blow by blow account of the misplaced priorities in Congressional and Presidential decision making since 9/11 that led to the disastrous federal response to Katrina.

There seems to have been a systematic failure of the entire Federal emergency response apparatus. A failure to allocate funds to the correct programs (and to smart preventative measures), chaotic chains of command at the new HSD, inability to coordinate activities with state and local levels, the list goes on. Very bad news for all of us. This means that 50% of what it takes to fight terrorism (mitigation of terrorist attacks on US locations) is demonstrably missing -- lost in a vast labyrinth of bureaucracy and misallocated funds. The status of the other 50% needed to fight terrorism (prevention) is at least open to debate (although I would argue through my analysis of Global Guerrilla development that this effort has been a failure too). We may be worse off today than before 9/11 at fighting terrorism. We certainly are worse at mitigating the impact of natural disasters.

Comments

[tdl]

Mr. Robb,
I am agreeing more and more with you that state and local governments should start taking the lead in protecting citizens (although I still believe that the citizen should not rely on governmental entities to protect themselves.) A broader question, however, is it possible that this increased incompotence on the federal level is pointing to the disintegration of the U.S.? Time to actually read my copy of "Shield of Achilles"?!

Regards,
tdl

[a z]

If open networks are the most efficient then wouldn't the corrollary be that closed networks (both in access and monitoring) are the least efficient?

No doubt I'm a fool for thinking that gov't political appointments, no bid contracts and a policy of classifying every little thing results in situations such as the Federal response to Katrina.

Too bad the government can't route around its own damaged central nodes.