Rebuilding Iraq instead of New Orleans

[JoshuaW]

I recently became aware of the difference between the amount of money we are paying to rebuild Iraq versus how much has gone to New Orleans. Iraq has received hundreds of billions of dollars, New Orleans almost nothing. The money in Iraq is not even going into rebuilding.
The president stood in New Orleans and promised to rebuild the city "whatever it takes". The federal government has supplied almost nothing. How can the administration justify the expense of all that money in Iraq when one of our own great cities lies in ruins a year after Katrina?

 

[Cerberus~]

That city is going into the ocean someday, why waste hundreds of billions of dollars trying to rebuild a city that won't last but 30 or 50 years before another hurricane wipes it out?

 

[peanutbutter12]

Not to mention all the crap that happened with FEMA, the ungrateful idiots who spent the money given to them on unneeded things such as alcohol, drugs, and $500 purses, the fact that there have been so many reports of people exploiting other peoples generosity, most recently a lady who was given a house in, I believe it was the Chicago area, by a church who really felt for her, has 2 kids and another on the way, spent all her FEMA money, and was given several job opportunities over the past year in which she TURNED THEM ALL DOWN, then has the nerve to go to the press when the church says that she has to get out of the house because they have given her more than enough time to find work and get back on her feet and she has not.

I am fully aware there were plenty of victims in this situation as well. We had a couple business associates and ministers who lost everything down there, people who watched as FEMA passed them over in favor of giving large sums of money to idiots while they got a portion of what they needed to rebuild, but the majority of these people have already moved on. They saw a bad situation and delt with it the best they could, and now, a year later, they have built or are building new lives.

No, I don't believe we should send a great deal of money into rebuilding that city. They exploited the money we did give to them, why give them more?

CJ

 

[wmc1982]

Iraq will never be "rebuilt", America made a big mistake that won't be admitted until the people who made the wrong decisions are out of power.

 

[Rusticus]

I see it this way:

Irak was "destroyed" by the USA. So let the USA pay for the re-building.

New Orleans was "destroyed" by an Act Of God. So let God do the re-building.

 

[pantsman52]

I see it this way:

Irak was "destroyed" by the USA. So let the USA pay for the re-building.

New Orleans was "destroyed" by an Act Of God. So let God do the re-building.

This is tongue-in-cheek humor, right?

 

[Rusticus]

This is tongue-in-cheek humor, right?

Yes, for the last part of my post.

But, for the first part, I'm very serious indeed.

 

[ElvisFan42]

There is no benefit to putting military bases in New Orleans.

 

[Silent Bob]

New Orleans has no oil. Rebuilding Iraq, ROLFMAO. I see them building enough infrastructure to support their oil opperations nothing more.

 

[JoshuaW]

Some of you would abandon the people and culture of New Orleans because it is vulnerable and some of the residents didn't show proper gratitude? I am apalled. There are plenty of other low-lying lands that no one talks of abandoning, such as the Netherlands, Venice and Bangla Desh. Have the Iraqis shown appropriate gratitude that they should receive over ten times the aid as Louisiana residents? Shouldn't our own people be helped first?

 

[Rusticus]

.........Have the Iraqis shown appropriate gratitude.....

Gratitude for what?

Being bombed, killed, their country being ruined and sliding into civil war?

 

[nvxplorer]

Not to mention all the crap that happened with FEMA, the ungrateful idiots who spent the money given to them on unneeded things such as alcohol, drugs, and $500 purses, the fact that there have been so many reports of people exploiting other peoples generosity, most recently a lady who was given a house in, I believe it was the Chicago area, by a church who really felt for her, has 2 kids and another on the way, spent all her FEMA money, and was given several job opportunities over the past year in which she TURNED THEM ALL DOWN, then has the nerve to go to the press when the church says that she has to get out of the house because they have given her more than enough time to find work and get back on her feet and she has not.

I am fully aware there were plenty of victims in this situation as well. We had a couple business associates and ministers who lost everything down there, people who watched as FEMA passed them over in favor of giving large sums of money to idiots while they got a portion of what they needed to rebuild, but the majority of these people have already moved on. They saw a bad situation and delt with it the best they could, and now, a year later, they have built or are building new lives.

No, I don't believe we should send a great deal of money into rebuilding that city. They exploited the money we did give to them, why give them more?

CJ

The spending of appropriations in Iraq has not exactly been transparent and above board.

 

[HumbleMan]

why waste hundreds of billions of dollars trying to rebuild a city that won't last but 30 or 50 years before another hurricane wipes it out?

Why waste hundreds of billions of dollars on a country that will never have peace due to two (and sometimes three) warring factions that will never like each other?

We spent billions of dollars (so far) on a country that will become the major competitor to Saudi Arabia for the world's oil supply, while at the same time allowing Saudi interest to buy into major US industries and markets. This country is being screwed on two fronts.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

There is no benefit to putting military bases in New Orleans.

There were military personell stationed there, since it was the headquarters for the U.S. Military Reserves. Most of them were diverted to Kansas City or some other part of the country after Katrina.

Think of it this way: Nature destroyed New Orleans by way of Katrina, while we destroyed Iraq along with the insurgency and other Iraqis. With that being said, should we fix what we broke or allow it to fix itself? Nature always rebuilds itself and New Orleans shouldn't have been built anyways.

 

[HumbleMan]

New Orleans shouldn't have been built anyways.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

How smart was it to build a city on swampland?

 

[Law of Loud]

As a country, we have an obligation to do our best to see that Iraq manages to maintain some stability and longevity into the future - and while that is difficult and costly, there have been some successes as well as some failures. We can't take back what we did a few years ago - but we have a responsibility now.

Screw Bush. This war was a huge mistake. Unbelievable.

But we can't abandon the Iraqi minorities to genocide.

 

[JoshuaW]

How smart was it to build a city on swampland?

Washington DC was built on swampland.
And what is this nonsense about "what God destroys God should rebuild"? A hurricane is not God, even though it is called an act of God. It is weather. We rebuild after bad weather.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Washington DC was built on swampland.
And what is this nonsense about "what God destroys God should rebuild"? A hurricane is not God, even though it is called an act of God. It is weather. We rebuild after bad weather.

Uh, where did I say this was an event from God?

 

[ElvisFan42]

How smart was it to build a city on swampland?

Or a state on a volcano, or all those nice beachfront properties across the nation or...Come on buddy, New Orleans was just fine for a long time, and will be for a long time to come.