Fog of War?

...more like the "fog of bureaucracy." Apparently that's what former FEMA chief Michael Brown said yesterday about why the U.S. government didn't respond properly to multiple warnings about the threats of Hurricane Katrina; warnings that were coming out well in advance of when the storm hit.

The Associated Press got its hands on confidential government video tapes (and made them public on Wednesday) of meetings where the president was told, in very clear terms, about the potential for levees to be breached, the Superdome to go under, and the amount of post-storm rescues that would be needed. And we all know what he turned around and told the nation after the disaster.

Of course, the White Hose and Homeland Security are telling people not to read too much into all this. Fine, maybe we shouldn't read too much into it, but there's no dodging the fact that it's bullshit to say that the "'fog of war' blinded [us] early on to the magnitude of the disaster." Well said, Homeland Security, well said. Let's imagine something for a moment here: a meteor hits Washington, D.C.; you call for help from overseas and the UK says, "Sorry, mate, we saw it coming on our telescopes a couple weeks ago, but some heavy fog blew in from the Scottish highlands and blinded us, and we're still pretty preoccupied with trying to clear it out. You can sort this whole thing yourselves, right?" Doesn't feel so good, eh? (Sorry for the random analogy, but it does work.) Anyway, it's an AP/YahooNews report.