The End Result of The American Dream?

At the Convention Centre frustration boiled over among the 20,000 packed inside — and there were even reports of gangs killing BABIES so they could take their places on rescue boats.

Police chief Eddie Compass sent in 88 officers to try to calm the angry mob at the Centre — but his men were beaten back.

He said: “We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten. Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.”



The death toll is expected to be in tens of thousands. There are reports of corpses on the streets being eaten by rats. There are reports of girls as young as 7, being raped.

We are witnessing a breakdown of a so called 'civil' and 'free' society in the face of one of the biggest tragedies ever witnessed by the USA.

Is this the end result of The American Dream? Looting, Rape, Murder, Rioting, Anarchy

And this is the country that wants to impose its values on everyone else, by force if necessary.

Its a crisis in full spate - as shown by shocking images of bodies floating in putrid water and desperate refugees scrabbling to catch supplies dropped by helicopter. America is the richest and most powerful country on earth. But its citizens, begging for food, water and help, are suffering agonies more familiar from Sudan and Niger. The worst of the third world has come to the Big Easy.

The words "homeland security" now have a terribly hollow ring in the anarchic south: 35% of Louisiana's National Guard is serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. And recruiting is down because people fear being sent to Iraq. The priority given to law and order seems a troubling inverse reflection of what happened after the fall of Baghdad. Is it really more important to use deadly force against looters than to deliver humanitarian aid effectively?

"These troops are battle-tested. They have M16s and are locked and loaded," she said. "These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will."

Elemental forces do not take account of secular political timetables, but Katrina struck at a moment when the president's ratings were at a second-term low. Americans, especially the poor black people who are the hurricane's main victims, will need to see a much more effective government response to this natural weapon of mass destruction if Mr Bush's reputation is not to sink further as the killer floodwaters start to recede.

'It is incredible, the government had no evacuation plan ... the first power in the world and it left its own population adrift." It will be particularly galling that the man voicing those thoughts, echoed yesterday by many across the United States and around the world, was Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, and one of the Bush administration's main hate figures.

Most disconcerting for those responsible for the relief effort is that it is not just Hugo Chávez who is expressing his amazement. Jack Cafferty, the CNN anchor known for his straight-talking, declared: "I remember the riots in Watts. I remember the earthquake in San Francisco. I remember a lot of things. I have never seen anything as badly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in that Superdome down there? It's a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching."

Maybe, and again its just a thought, the rescue & relief efforts would've been more of an acceptable standard and maybe the lives of tens of thousands of people would've been saved if the President of the US of A wasn't so preoccupied with his wars for oil.

Bush let the American people down badly once again, only this time it hurts much more.

Our thoughts go out to the families of the victims of this tragedy.