I am appalled as a US citizen that we are so close to a catastrophic natural disaster such as the 7.0 Quake that hit Haiti on Tuesday and that we can’t provide food, water and medical supplies along with critical medical personal to address the situation more rapidly than we have six days later.

President Obama has been in our face five days running about how this is a number one priority, how we are pulling out all the stops, yet many victims are without medical care, food and water to this day.

And of course there was much rhetoric for the need of money from Americans – and, oh, how they came to the cause, all on their own as they did after 9/11.  But that’s we the citizens.

But the government?  A rather sluggish bureaucratic lot. An aircraft carrier arrived two days ago, the 82 Airborne has yet to arrive, nor has the expeditionary forces of the US Marines and the US Navy Hospital ship Comfort left Baltimore today and will not be in Haiti until later next week.

Meanwhile in Homestead Florida, Vice President Joe Biden was fumbling and  bumbling his words, as usual, with an extraordinary rambling dissertation about the one runway in Port Au Prince.  He went on so long with his rhetoric that the congestion at the Haiti airport got worse.

He was trying to explain that this was the only way in and out.  The Port was destroyed and that we are doing the best we can.  Mendacity!

While reviewing all of these events, the news reports and devastating scenes form Haiti, the political comments, the delay in military response, I couldn’t help but think of the landing on Normandy in World War II.

Now I know this took a lot of planning.  And, I’ll  bet most of my readers don’t know many trial runs took place in a place in England called Slapton Sands, which had a shore line similar to Normandy.  Many US soldiers and sailors lost their lives in this trial run which was kept a secret for years.  Look it up it’s interesting.

The point here is simple.  I do not understand why we didn’t dispatch the hospital ship immediately, the aircraft carrier, dispatch the 82 Airborne troops and drop them from the air to secure drop zones and follow this up with air drops of food, water and medical supplies.  The Marines are used to landing by sea, they are still not there six days later.

Furthermore Haiti is attached to Santa Domingo, a country with several runways.  Remember convoys’ from world War II?  Haven’t heard too much about this, but understand the Red Cross has one on the way.

It seems to me that our government rhetoric was far more rapid than our government response.

The alternatives for rapid arrival in Haiti were there despite the rhetoric that said there was only one runway.  When has that stopped us in an invasion?

Now this is not to say that good things are not happening and lives are not being saved, but it was hardly a rapid response, and for that matter, still isn’t.

Yes the very same people in this administration criticized President Bush on his response to Katrina, the Obama Administration hasn’t yet seen the critical comments that will be coming their way on Haiti.

However, for now Obama’s following his counselor’s advice – that is Rahm Emanuel who says, “You Never Want A Serious Crisis To Go To Waste.”

So Biden bumbles in Florida about one runway, Hillary arrives in Port Au Prince as a symbolic gesture, Obama calls together past presidents Clinton and Bush to launch an on-going fund raising campaign for Haiti and President Obama travels to Massachusetts tomorrow to try and save the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat.

After, 6 days of this demonstration of saving lives, imagine how well Americans will fare in their own land under the Obama health care plan?