By PHK
On Wednesday, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan publicly accepted responsibility for the corruption and mismanagement of Iraq’s Oil-for-Food program as determined by an independent investigatory commission headed by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.
This must not have been easy. In Annan’s case, he accepted responsibility for actions not of his doing. The commission’s charges were instead related to his own son’s malfeasance as well as that of certain high level UN officials who administered Oil-for-Food under the Secretary General’s watch. Yet as head of the world’s largest and most inclusive international organization in the world, Annan was, and is, responsible for its oversight – a Herculean political and administrative task in itself. Nevertheless, as Secretary General, the UN buck stopped at his desk. Annan painfully admitted as much - as he did his own failing to keep a tighter rein on this politically charged program.
But what about George W. Bush?
On the one hand, he tells us the buck stops with him. On the other hand, this seems to be only when things go right. When mistakes are made, he and his advisors quickly point the finger in another direction. This has been the pattern of the W White House since day one. It’s an old political tactic which both political parties know all too well – but this administration has polished beyond all belief.
Is it because the administration has so few accomplishments that it can point to? Unless, of course, accomplishment means a tax cut for the richest and zillions of dollars in contracts to Halliburton in a “guns and butter” game of economic flimflam last attempted under the Johnson Administration.
“Guns and Butter” economics didn’t work in the 1960s and they won’t work today. At least under Johnson, however, the butter and the guns were far more equitably distributed. For all his faults, LBJ did have a conscience and a sense of equality. Maybe it came from his early school teacher background.
I certainly don’t see conscience reflected in this current “born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-his-mouth” President from Texas who still evidently lacks certificates in all but partying and cycling 101.
Maybe if W had a conscience, he would accept responsibility for the devastation in New Orleans. He might also agree to an independent investigatory commission to determine the multitude of failings that still engulf the city and the gulf in general.
If, after a thorough, bipartisan investigation and the investigatory body determines his administration is blameless - as W and his minders claim – and the Democratic governor and mayor are at fault, then so be it. This is what independent, nonpartisan commissions are formed to determine. So what exactly is GWB afraid of? The truth? Accepting responsibility for the dereliction of his administration? Andrew Sullivan may well be on to yet another Bush lie that his colleagues in the MSM have yet to highlight to the non-blog reading public. (Thanks CKR for the link; Sullivan's reporting is a must read on this subject.)
Meanwhile, W might dump his eminently ill-qualified FEMA chief Michael Brown sooner rather than later as Nancy Pelosi suggests and work with a nonpartisan commission and a U.S. Congress to set right what ails the US emergency preparedness system of our federal government before San Francisco suffers another deadly earthquake (as predicted along with the New Orleans floods and another terrorist attack) or Al Qaeda – or an Al Qaeda wanna-be – pulls off another 9/11. The Daily Kos now reports that Brown is being removed from New Orleans and sent back to Washington. Wonderful. As critics charge, W never fires anyone for incompetency - or lying. We, as taxpayers however, get to pay not only Brown's inflated salary but also his airfare back to the District.
Several years ago, Congress appropriated a small amount of funding for training emergency relief personnel in about 50 cities across the US. The funds brought together local, state and national first responders – police, hospital workers, National Guard - to help them learn to coordinate efforts with one another. The hands-on anti-terrorism training lasted a few days, clearly not enough – but at least it was a small beginning. And the cross-agency skills that were taught applied to any kind of disaster. This funding happened under the Clinton Administration and the money was appropriated through the U.S. Army.
New Mexico Republican Senator Pete Domenici, then Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, was a strong supporter. But what happened to such cooperative training since? Did it fall by the wayside? Was this simply a one-shot deal? Were its funds too diverted to the Iraq venture under Bush II? Or given back to the wealthy in the form of tax “relief?” Or was this tiny program simply not enough to handle the enormity of the drowning of New Orleans. I’d like to know.
But there’s another factor too that needs consideration
Bigger does not equal Better or Cheaper
One of the myriad weaknesses of the U.S. federal government has been that over the years both Republicans and Democrats seem to think that bigger equals better. That creating mammoth federal governmental departments will resolve inter-agency coordination problems and be cheaper to boot. So we now have Homeland Security, a State Department that looks like it swallowed a canary, a Defense Department that acts like a whale and a mammoth combined, and an intelligence czar who sits atop a bevy of squabbling agencies that still can't cooperate.
What nonsense. It’s like those Big Box stores – those super Walmarts – where service is non-existent, staff is underpaid, ill-informed, and poorly treated and heaven help you if you yourself don’t know where to look for something.
In my experience, federal government mergers and acquisitions don’t work. The smushing of USIA and ACDA into the State Department is just one example. Now we lack public diplomacy and arms control. Just check the record of the Bush Administration’s “accomplishments” in both areas. The State Department’s hierarchical, stodgy bureaucratic culture plus Bush administration unilateralist foreign policy doctrine destroyed the nimbleness and effectiveness of these two distinct and still manageably-sized foreign policy related operations.
So similarly went FEMA: Smushed into the Homeland Security behemoth which is far too large, far too bureaucratic and administered by far too lack luster political leadership. Sorry, Mike Chertoff may look great on paper – but performance is a different matter.
Nevetheless, if only W would accept responsibility for his – and his administration’s failings, and both parties would come to the realization that “Bigger is not Better or Cheaper,” the country would likely emerge the stronger for it. But this is undoubtedly wishful thinking on my part. Sometimes people come out better and stronger for admitting mistakes. It’s a lesson Mr. Bush junior might consider. It’s also eminently Christian.