September 3, 2005
Hurricane Katrina's blow to New Orleans
and the failure of the government to respond have shown the United
States to be a failed state.
The George W. Bush administration focused all of its resources
on war and the Department of Homeland Security, yet when a major
American city was attacked, albeit by the forces of nature, the
government failed to respond leaving at least hundreds, probably
thousands, to die, others to suffer in illness and injury, and
many more thirsty and hungry. No security in the homeland: a
failed state.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), apparently
without any management, delayed response until the emergency
had overwhelmed the city. No emergency management: a failed state.
The National Guard and the military were called out to preserve
order only when ordered had devolved into chaos. Chaos: a failed
state.
The
Lid is Off
Hurricane Katrina blew off the façade of American society.
It pulled back the curtain to reveal the millions who live in
poverty, mostly African American in New Orleans, but in other
cities Latino, Native American, and white. The most apparent
failure of the state has been in emergency response, but far
greater has been the failure to create a stable existence, a
decent society for millions.
What we see in New Orleans today we might have see as well if
there had been a tsunami in Los Angeles or tornadoes in Chicago.
Every American city harbors millions of people with high rates
of unemployment, low incomes, poor housing, no health insurance,
low levels of education. In the United States 25 percent of our
children are raised in poverty. Nearly 50 million people have
no health insurance.
When millions live like that: failed state.
Failed
at War and Peace
The Bush administration's priorities have been foreign war and
globalization, the agenda of U.S. corporations. The warwrong
the beginningfailed. It brought destruction to Baghdad and
other cities of Iraq, killed 100,000 civilians, and so far nearly
2,000 U.S. troops, and has not brought about either the rule
of law or democracy.
What the war did do was divert resources from the United States
that might have gone into building highways, houses and school;
developing alternative energy sources; supporting free public
education form K to Ph.D. as many nations have.
We have had a government for
the rich. We call that a failed state.
A Failed
Economy
President Bush has
argued that our economy is a success. But it is not. We have
had a failed economy. We have had now for the last few years,
some would say for the last few decades, a "jobless recovery".
We have an economy that produces profit, accumulates profit,
pays dividends, enriches shareholders, invests abroad, and grows
in wealth. Yet it has failed to provide jobs and wages for its
citizens.
Wages and income for American families have stagnated while costs
for everything, but especially for higher education have risen.
We have an economy that cannot produce jobs that pay a living
wage. We have wages that cannot pay for our standard of living.
Now we will have $3.19 per gallon gas. Then $5.00 a gallon gas.
Then, who knows All of this was predictable, was predicted. Now
we have had the storm that has brought it all on faster, what
was coming on any way, what has now hit us.
Jobless recovery. If you cannot create an economy that allows
people to live and thrive, you are a failed state.
From
Rogue State to Failed State
The United States,
the failed state, is so because it was first a rogue state. The
United States failed to sign the Kyoto Treaty, the International
Court of Justice treaty, or the land mines treaty. The United
States violated international law with its wars in Iraq and Iran,
and with its unsuccessful coup d,état in Venezuela.
What has happened over time has been that the general distortion
of ethics and values in foreign policy has also seeped into domestic
policy.
The United States has treated the United Nations with contempt,
ridiculed France, and abused Venezuela. Interestingly the U.N.,
the European Union, Venezuela and even Cuba have offered to help
in any way they can: sending aid, loaning oil, providing doctors.
No Political
Alternative
Unfortunately, and this is characteristic of failed states, there
is no political alternative. When the state has failed, it is
because the existing political parties had failedall of
them. Throughout the last 25 years of war and peace Democrats
and Republicans, Carter and Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush, have
pursued the same fundamental policies. Both parties have acted
to deregulate the economy and to dismantle social welfare programs.
The Democrats launched these policies with the deregulation of
airlines and trucking, the Republicans deepened them with dramatic
federal budget cuts for social services. Both parties carried
these policies abroad with the WTO and the IMF, with NAFTA and
CAFTA. The Republicans carried war to Afghanistan and Iraq, with
the Democrats holding up the flag, passing the ammunition, and
saluting.
Failed parties: failed state.
What
to Do with a Failed State
What does one do with
a failed state. You start over.
Reform is not the answer. Reform is what you do to make something
work. Do we want to make the system we have work? Well, think
about who it works for. It works for the corporations, the military,
the wealthy, the politicians. It does not work for the people
of the United States at large, certainly not for working people
and the poor. Above all it does not work for black people.
The alternative to reform is reconstruction. Sometimes you rehab.
Sometimes you have to tear down and start over, build better.
We need to start over. We need to start now.
We need a new radical political movement to do it, one prepared
to reject reform for the total reconstruction of our society.
A real reconstruction of our society would start with the poor
people of New Orleans, with their needs. They and all who are
like them should come first. If we make a society where they
can live and thrive, then we all will.
Dan La Botz teaches history and Latin American
studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He edits Mexican
Labor News and Analysis, and is the author of several books
on labor in Mexico, Indonesia, and the United States. He can
be reached at: labotzdh@muohio.edu
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