Walid Phares: "Katrina's Geopolitics: The Tower of Babel and America?s 'Image'"

By Andrew Cochran

Walid Phares is on travel and asked me to post the following, which is one of a series of observations he will make about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on the counterterrorism effort:

The tragedy left by the mass killer hurricane in Louisiana and Mississippi, will produce more words flooding the debates in America than the water that flowed into the Big Easy through the levee. But while the US Army and the Corps of Engineers will repair the breach and pump the water out, the political cacophony over the dead, the injured and the destructions is unfortunately endless. In moments like these, when humans meet mother-nature unleashed, you test society�s ability to absorb the crisis. And as I observe the fiery accusations fuming from all quarters of politics, I cannot but offer these oversimplified remarks. Let me summarize what graduate students would call: what is the research question? In laymen�s words: what are we talking about here?

It�s warranted to ask a question about the questions, because while the physical storm is over, the mental storms are picking up without limits. Average people, those who usually listen only -let alone the miserable refugees, hospitalized, orphaned, and all others in pain- all of them are watching the politicians, those at various levels of Government and the would-be-willing to replace them, as well as the media, fuming in all directions. A big Tower of Babel is being built: people talking about many things at the same time, in different mental languages. From are storms caused by the Pentagon to under whose authority was FEMA to act. A huge brouhaha has installed itself for a long period of time. And to complicate the lives of those who lost most of it, they are compelled to listen to overseas lectures on how Americans should live their lives and build their levees by both friends and foes.

On top of it, the enemy is enjoying the show: al Qaida has enlisted the hurricane as �Sister Katrina� sent by Allah to destroy American cities. But not only the enemy: even intellectuals and scholars within America went to the morbid extent of considering the victims in New Orleans and the Coast as �people whose sacrificed their lives to remove the Government from Washington:� (A real quote to be revealed later) We�ll get back to the abusers of natural catastrophes to cause further harm to the surviving society. They won�t be off the hook. But now, let�s start the questioning and reflection over the disaster.

America�s image

Many among the commentators, especially those on the superficial side of this business, are extremely worried about the so called America�s image. �What is the world going to think of us after they saw these horrible images on their TVs?� Wait a minute: What is the relevance of this bourgeois like concern. We are facing a tragedy caused by a natural force which doesn�t answer to international law, or to public image. Katrina is neither an American political institution nor was it born on American soil. It is a huge body of water pushed by atmosphere-created winds, initiated from the West Coast of Africa and slamming into the southern coast of the United States. I don�t see its constitutional dimension or the contribution of intellectuals in its creation. Katrina is weather not legislation; it is a natural phenomenon at least four billion years old, not born in Falluja last year. It is not about the political credibility of the United States in as much as it is about the maturity of the international community in dealing with planetary drama. Prague had floods so did France and Germany; but luckily to them, they are not located in the final destination of tropical storms. Europeans love vacationing in warm places, but many among their writers miss the other dimension of sunny places. In the Caribbean, storms kill inhabitants, even in the most powerful democracy on Earth. Yes Americans are humans, even though Hollywood made them into semi gods. Americans die, are injured, and cry like any other human species. There is no need for pity coming from editorialists and bloggers who, like crows awaiting bad news, slam America when it bleeds.

They accuse this country of having its helicopters overseas when its citizens died in the flood. At least America�s helicopters and service men and women are not entertaining the Club Meds of the world or strictly parading on national holidays. The US military was helping the victims of the Tsunami in south Asia, while the world watched and whined and it is protecting the voters of Afghanistan and Iraq, while the international elites are skiing in the Alps.

Yes, the American civilians who died in Louisiana and Mississippi should be revered by the world, because their sons and daughters were on the battlefields to defend world freedom and security. And even if the entire army has been deployed within the US at the end of August, nature has determined its course no matter what. Back in 1992, as Andrews was killing in South Florida, there was no War on Terror nor democracy building in Iraq, and all the National Guard were at home, yet God�s will happened regardless. When people die and humanity is confronted by a higher order of creation, there is no image to worry about. A deadly hurricane doesn�t kill �Americans,� it kills humans who happen to live on these coasts. One twist from nature, and Katrina could have flattened Cuba, crushed the Yucatan or dismantled Hugo Chaves� oil refineries. When mother-nature strikes at a city, a country, it is striking at our precarious humanity, not at a nation-state or a particular flag. Hence, if image there is, America has always had the best in humanitarian assistance. In Banda Aceh last January we haven�t seen Russian and Chinese planes nor have we seen Venezuelan and Cuban ships, rescuing the victims of the Tsunami. We don�t remember the Saudi National Guard being dropped over the Muslim island, or the Iranians dispatching their special forces.

When Turkey had an earthquake, even Greece sent its best. Turks responded in kindness when its neighbor was hit. When Iran was devastated by underground shocks, it was the infidels who came up with the largest support. As soon as the Czech Republic tasted its floods, the European Union rushed for help. When a Russian sub got stuck, British and Americans sent their best technology. All nations have political problems with each other, but when natural cataclysms happen, countries should come together not lecture about the victim�s image.

Walid Phares is a Professor of Comparative Politics at Florida Atlantic University, and also a survivor of Hurricane Andrews and many other tropical storms.

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