The most of this books issues relate to the systematic total failure on all levels of the relief effort, which is what the following pertains to.
It is now a few days after the storm, the levees have broken, and Zeitoun is paddling around on his second-hand canoe saving all those he can find who need his help. Unable to transport a woman in a wheelchair and her husband who were both in their seventies due to the size of his boat, he paddles to the medical center where national guardsmen were stationed, with large fan boats. When he asks for help, at gunpoint, he is told first that they could not help him, and after repeating his request the more astonishing answer was given, "Not our problem," (144). I cannot explain my reaction to this any better than was written in the book, "What were they doing in the city, if not helping evacuate people," (144). The worst part in my opinion was the disregard of the stranded elderly couple as someone else's problem. That is just not right or reasonable in any sense.
After reading this and taking a look at the stuff we have been doing in class it is very disturbing to me. It is disturbing that our government did not do anything. The government could not never protect its own citizens. They made up all sorts of excuses, but when it came the war on terror there were no excuses. Their own people they let die and they let them suffer, also they are still letting them suffer today.
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