HOME	Your Most Trusted Source of Foreign News and Views About the United States

By M'Hamed Ben Youssef

September 5 - 11 Issue

Tunis Hebdo - Original Article (French)    

From Tunis Hebdo

The United States was just struck by a terrifying natural catastrophe, the most serious in its history, though it was thought that such a drama was only a problem for countries without the latest warning technology, like those that were hit by the tsunami on December 26 around the Indian Ocean, leaving 230,000 victims.

A million and a half Americans used their vehicles to flee New Orleans, a city situated below sea level and where the rundown levees were ready to break. Predictions that came true: a sad, bitter reality. The city was totally flooded and emptied of its entire population. The hurricane, with winds up to 150 miles per hour [240kph], swept over three huge regions: Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. A still unknown statistic, there is talk of 10,000 dead, even more. The people who have lost their possessions can be counted in the millions. The damage adds up to a $100 billion, that is to say half of the total expenditures, in two years, of the war in Iraq.

This disaster, because that’s what it is, caused tremendous anarchy in the devastated areas during the first four days - inhabited mostly by Americans of color and, moreover, the least privileged. For this reason, to “calm spirits” and attempt to reduce the number of looters, who truth be told couldn’t be differentiated from the thousands of hungry people looking for anything to eat, the resort to large numbers of soldiers (50,000 men) proved indispensable.

Building Lifted Out of Its Foundations Lands in the Road.

This delay before the first rescuers arrived shocked the entire world, even more so because it happened to the top superpower in every category, faster to wage war on others in flagrant violation of every notion of international law than it is to take care of its own people. And the decision, among others, to quickly pull 300 pilots from Afghanistan, where rebellion is flaring again, and from Iraq, where for the “hawks” things are going from bad to worse - to ensure sufficient rescue airlift, is a positive step in relieving the suffering of several hundred thousand Americans suffering unbearable moral and material distress.

The call for private donations and international aid to respond to the damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provides additional proof that it is impossible - for a superman or a superpower - to do without the help and compassion of others during unexpected tragic challenges. And we sincerely share in the mourning of the Americans, who as a rule are a great people, even if they aren’t or haven’t always been led by worthy politicians. The little people will be able to bounce back. The majority of the working masses of the United States are real fighters who will meet the challenge.

The Emir of Qatar With His Scabbard and One of His Prized Arabian Horses.

To this it is necessary to acknowledge the significant contributions from the huge treasuries of certain oil emirs in the Gulf, money they “willingly” pay, often on the sly. It is a matter of showing, financially speaking, their esteem for the current resident of the White House, who is feared everywhere. Yet they showed themselves to be rather “stingy” when it came to contributing to the disaster on the Asian coast at the beginning of the year, particularly in Indonesia, the most populated Muslim country.

[Editor's Note: Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar (picture, right) donated $100 million to the Katrina relief effort. He donated $10 million after the tsunami].

Bush, whose popularity is in a free fall (61% disapprove of him) for having “screwed up” in Iraq, has seen and will continue to see difficult times. A political storm can be expected. Average Americans, who were indoctrinated with the “fairness” of the war waged abroad, specifically in the Gulf and allegedly for their security, were shocked that Bush couldn’t provide the means of saving so many fellow citizens from this terrible hurricane. The Republicans now face a tormented socio-political situation. They will likely lose the midterm legislative elections. And who says that they won’t contribute, because of or thanks to their poor leadership, the arrival of a Democrat in the oval office?

Barring a miracle, the predictable weakening and newly-discovered preoccupations of the ultra-reactionary team gravitating around Bush will have important consequences:

- The pursuit of war in Mesopotamia more ruinously than ever, at a time when Uncle Sam doesn’t have the means to fight two wars at the same time, including the economic one against the terrifying hurricane.

- Damascus will be in the Western, especially the Franco-American spotlight, because of the arrest of a group of pro-Syrian Lebanese generals implicated in the assassination of [former Lebanese Prime Minister] Rafic Hariri. Syria may think it is under less pressure, more so because Chirac, it’s second “critic,” and an intimate friend of the wealthy family of the deceased Hariri, is in bad health, with the ever-present possibility of a resignation. This is a godsend for the impatient [Nicolas] Sarkozy, who is so busy, lucky in politics and unlucky in love. Will this diplomatic calming and “gift from the sky” so wished for by the young [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad be ephemeral, with Beirut as a “military side-effect” placing President Lahoud in a revolving door?

The Murder of Rafik Harriri Still Reverberates.

[Editor’s Notes: French President Jacques Chirac was hospitalized with what doctors described as “a small vascular accident" that had impaired his vision. He was released Monday. Nicolas Sarkozy is the French Interior Minister and Chirac’s chief political rival. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harriri was assassinated last February in what is thought to have been a suicide bombing. Syria is suspected by many, especially in Paris and Washington, of having been behind the murder].

- Oil, the source of all the trouble in so many countries, rich and poor, will remain the great unknown; international aid as well. A dollar purposely made weak again, or weakened because of a weak American economy, means the Euro on top. And it is us, the so-called developing countries caught in a zone of European influence, who will pay…