Bureaucrats May Be to Blame for Slow Response to Hatian Earthquake

Written by Kevin on 20 January 2010

On January 12, 2010 an earthquake devastated Haiti. It has taken about a week for aid from the United States to start flowing with any regularity. What has been the problem? I see the news reports and the network television reporters on the scene showing us the tent cities and the victims who are desperate for food, water, and shelter and I have trouble understanding why the U.S. response has been so slow especially given Haiti’s proximity to the United States. That is until I heard someone mention on the radio yesterday an interview with Retired Lt. General Russel Honore in which he says,

“I was a little frustrated to hear that USAID was the lead agency,” he said. “I respect them, but they’re not a rapid deployment unit.”

Therein lies the problem. The bureaucrats are in charge and not the military. Now it makes sense. The military specializes in getting to places that are normally inaccessible. It’s how they are able to fight wars any place on the planet. They have equipment and personnel that can move mountains if necessary. Bureaucrats meanwhile sit and ponder the situation to determine the best course of action and are quite often the bottleneck when it comes to decision making.

Watch this interview from last Sunday’s Face the Nation.

Dr. Rajiv Shah, who is the person President Obama put in charge of this entire operation, does nothing to answer the question from Bob Schieffer regarding the problems and the causes of the sluggishness of the U.S. response. General Keen doesn’t do much to clear anything up either but you can’t ever expect a member of the military to contradict the president’s front man for the operation. Dr. Shah just gives us a bunch of nonsense campaign speak about how quickly President Obama responded to the issue. All that talk hasn’t saved a single soul.

I should note before I get death threats and hate e-mail that my observations are in no way a criticism of the people on the ground saving lives of the victims of the earthquake. Those people are doing some of the toughest work and deserve nothing but support.

The media is trying to compare the U.S. government’s response in Haiti to the response to Hurricane Katrina when it hit New Orleans. But that comparison is not fair in that there is something in the United States called state’s rights or state sovereignty. You see, support from upper levels of government cannot flow until it is requested by lower levels of government. In other words, the City of New Orleans has to request help from the State of Louisiana before the state can step in and the State of Louisiana has to request help from the federal government before it can step in. The federal government is not allowed to just trample on a state’s right to help itself unless something like martial law is declared.

The myths around the varying levels of government response to Katrina has long been debunked. It wasn’t the FUBAR the media made it out to be. Of the reported more than 60,000 deaths the reality was less than 1,100. I’m sure the same will be said of Haiti when this is all over. The reporting will be exaggerated compared to the reality. At least that’s what I hope.

Tags: earthquake, haiti, katrina, usaid
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