The grim lessons of Katrina

New York

It is tempting when looking back on natural catastrophes to see them as symbols of the affected nation’s fatal departure from good sense or moral progress. Hubris is retrospectively invoked to justify the evident nemesis. The horrific events in New Orleans and surrounding territories are being picked apart, like entrails in aboriginal Africa, as though there might be a clue, even a message, that will explain how America has begun to fall apart.

In a bid to pre-empt at least some of Congress’s investigative zeal, the President announced on Monday that he would carry out his own inquiry into the catastrophe, but senators and congressmen refuse to be deterred and are to launch their own investigation. One thing that is certain is that no one will emerge from the audit with much credit; certainly not the state and municipal authorities, who have shown themselves to be whining incompetents. Much of the sniping at Bush has been infantile.