The Whole Picture

Note: This blog was published in the Opinions Section of the Daily Iowan on June 12th, 2006

I hope that the Daily Iowan doesn't truly agree with the guest opinion taken from the Washington Post that was printed in Thursday's paper ("Katrina's Unlearned Lessons", Washington Post 6/7/06). Who ever authored that editorial decided to only look at a few facts out of thousands of pages of findings since the tragedies in the gulf coast. For some reason the authors want to pin all the blame on the Corps of Engineers, simply because they admitted fault. It is true that several of the most severe breaches were not caused by overtopping like the Corp originally thought, but by failure in structural integrity. But to blame that all on the Corp would be a gross misunderstanding of the big picture. On numerous occasions the Corps has attempted to get funding that would improve the strength of the canals and floodwalls in and around New Orleans, but when they did not receive as much as need (which has happened time and time again) the walls were simply made taller; not exactly improving upon strength. Before I would blame the Corps of Engineers I would blame the authors of the editorial, they are just has resposible for what happened in the Gulf Coast. Their opinions cleary show that the are a part of the taxpayers that have continually shot down efforts to restructure, redesign, and fortify the systems that help protect those areas, simply because the price tag was too large. How about now? Now that millions have been forced from their homes, now that towns have been washed off the map? There are things that must be learned from this experience that need to be applied to what we do in the future. Continuing to blame one party, or questioning their involvement, as we move further helps no one.