Blame Where it Belongs

In a must-read opinion piece on Grist, Washington Post reporter Michael Grunwald rips into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, arguing that it, more than any other player in the Katrina drama, was responsible for the tragedy. Say anything you want about the post-Katrina response, argues Grunwald, the criminally incompetent party was the pork-fattened Corps, which the media, and thus the public, has more or less let off the hook.

Sure, the response was botched, but, says Grunwald, if a building collapsed, would we concentrate our criticism on the police and fire departments? Hell no. We'd point the finger squarely at the architect and the builder, which, in the case of New Orleans, happens to be the Corps. By extension, Congress is also to blame, for using Corps projects "to steer jobs and cash to constituents and contributors," which has resulted in boondoggles too numerous to mention.