CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE: An Era Of Accountability

"I as president am responsible for the problem and the solution." George W. Bush.

It is not usually news when a world leader takes responsibility for the errors of his administration. It is little more than acknowledging a truism. However, when a leader has ruled for five years through a series of unprecedented blunders, failures and catastrophes, and has not accepted responsibility for anything, the admission is earth shattering. How bad must it be for this president to accept blame?

The president did not accept responsibility for the disenfranchisement of African American citizens in Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004. He did not accept blame for the blatant falsehood of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear preparedness. He did not accept blame for the equally fraudulent claim of Iraq’s massive stockpiles of chemical weapons. He did not accept responsibility for programmed misinformation connecting the September 11 attack with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He did not accept blame for the bombing of Al Jazeera, the killing of journalists, the policy of torture exposed at Abu Ghraib, the massacres of Fallujah, Ramadi or the Sunni sections of Baghdad. He did not accept blame for the military coup in Haiti or the attempted coup in Venezuela.

The problem with the most tragic president since Franklin Pierce suddenly accepting responsibility is that, once it begins, it has no end.

The president has accepted liability for the government’s failure to respond to the drowning of New Orleans and the devastation throughout the Gulf region but he has not accepted responsibility for the mountain of debt, the mountains, rivers and clouds of toxic waste, the decline of America’s living standards, the exportation of well-salaried jobs or the bleeding of education and social services.

Sixteen days after Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, the president finally accepts some vague and nuanced level of blame, but the admission lacks the flesh of detail and the blood of conviction.

In the beginning stages of this disaster, before it was clear the government had lost control of the story, administration officials tripped over themselves with testimonials of support and gratitude. When someone finally tuned in to CNN (like the rest of us) and saw how gruesome reality was, they shifted blame to the little guys, the state and local authorities, and accused the media of engaging in what they had initiated: the blame game.

Now that the president has accepted responsibility, let us take account of the weight he is taking upon his shoulders. Does he accept blame for four days of incredible, compassionless, mind-numbing inactivity while the poor of New Orleans cried out in anguish and despair? Does he accept responsibility for the absence of the Guard? Does he accept responsibility for scapegoating, backstabbing, blame shifting and turf wars while people died in the streets? Does he accept responsibility for the inexplicable lack of preparedness, the failure to evacuate, failure to repair and reinforce the levees, the indefensible waste of resources on homeland security and an aggressive war? Does he accept his fair share of responsibility for toxic waste and ignoring global warming? Does he accept responsibility for the lives left behind not only in this crisis but in the everyday economy of a president who looks only to his own people, the privileged and wealthy?

Sixteen days after disaster, the president accepts responsibility and offers a credit card solution: tax incentives, low interest loans, worker recovery accounts, job training, and a homestead act. These are temporary fixes designed to hold off the media while the real money goes to Halliburton, Chevron and the all the usual suspects. A real solution begins with a frank acknowledgement that we have wandered far from the course. Bring the troops home. Stop the endless waste of empire building. Accept that your administration has already squandered our resources, committed us to decades of futile war, and bankrupted the nation both financially and morally.

The district attorney of New Orleans has seen fit to prosecute the elderly owners of a nursing home for negligent homicide. Who in this administration will accept responsibility for the most obvious case of criminal negligence since the tobacco industry?

If the president really wants to accept responsibility, he will resign and spare the nation the indignity of impeachment.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, COUNTERPUNCH & THE ALBION MONITOR.