Karen Hughes, who officially takes her job Friday as head of the nation's image-building effort abroad, said Thursday that Hurricane Katrina has complicated her already formidable task.
But while much of the international criticism has centered on the Bush administration's response to the storm, Hughes said something else is a problem for America's image around the world: the crime that followed.
"The images of crime being committed in the face of an awful natural disaster is hard for anyone to understand, people around the world and Americans. It sickens me as an American," she said. "How could criminals prey on vulnerable elderly citizens and children during a time of such horror?"
Like President Bush, Hughes acknowledged that the overall government response effort has been flawed, but she did not include that as a reason why the image of the United States might further suffer as a result of the storm.
...
Hughes said it was "unfortunate that this natural disaster disproportionately affected people of one race and one income level."
Yeah, that was a damned shame, wasn't it? Not that race or income level had anything to do with the fact those people couldn't leave the city before the storm. Or that FEMA couldn't muster enough coordination to do anything about them until 4 daya after the storm.
Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.
Maybe the world is appalled that the first-world country on the planet, has such third-world conditions in its own backyard (and NOT across its border!). Maybe the world is appalled that we left those people to die for 4 days before beginning to mount an effective response! Maybe you should tell the world that the tales of violence and rape were apparently apocryphal!
Or is your only job propaganda?
I can't stand it. I just can't stand it.
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