Bush: No racism in response
2005-09-12 19:30
New Orleans - US President George W Bush refused on Monday to identify any specific failures in Washington's response to Hurricane Katrina, but flatly denied that race was a factor in who was left behind.
"The storm didn't discriminate, and neither will the recovery effort," he said as he got his first close-up look of New Orleans two weeks after the killer storm turned the once proud jazz capital into a fetid swamp.
Critics of government responses to what was one of the worst natural disasters in US history have noted that most of the people unable or unwilling to flee the drowned city were black.
But Bush focused on the rescue efforts, saying emergency workers "didn't check the colour of a person's skin" before pulling them to safety and that "the rescue efforts were comprehensive and recovery will be comprehensive".
The president, here for the first time since dumping embattled federal emergency management agency chief Mike Brown from his leadership role in relief efforts, rejected reporters' questions on whether any of his aides had let him or New Orleans down, but said there would be time to examine any failures.
"We need to learn everything we possibly can.
"We need to make sure that this country is knitted up as well as it can be in order to deal with significant problems and disasters," said Bush.
War in Iraq
Bush toured storm-ravaged sections of New Orleans in his motorcade, then traded that for a military truck, standing in the open air in the back as it wound its way through trash-strewn streets, occasionally ducking to avoid low wires and branches.
The president, facing his worst poll numbers ever in the hurricane's wake, angrily rejected any suggestion that the war in Iraq had in any way affected Washington's response to Katrina.
"It is preposterous to claim that the engagement in Iraq meant there wasn't enough troops here. It's pure and simple," he said forcefully.
"We've got plenty of troops to do both."
But Lieutenant-General Steven Blum, head of the national guard bureau, reportedly said last week that "arguably" one day of response time was lost due to Mississippi and Louisiana national guard deployments in Iraq.
"Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear," he was quoted as saying.