Devastation too great for any defence plan

By MARY DEJEVSKY

If Tuesday's enduring image was the epic drama of New York's World Trade Centre ablaze, yesterday's was the grim routine of the search - the mountainous rubble, the counting and identification of the dead.

But both images spoke to one reality: the powerlessness of government - any government - in the face of so devastating and unforeseen an attack.

You have to go back to the 1950s and 1960s, to the height of the Cold War, to reach a time when any developed country was in any way prepared for the sort of destruction that was visited on lower Manhattan and the Pentagon this week.



But for many hours after the first attack from the air, there was at least the impression of an unsettling vacuum of power, and uncertainty when Americans - and the rest of the world - might have expected confident defiance.

Between mid-morning, when George Bush was told of the twin assaults on New York, and 9 pm when he addressed the nation from the White House, he was shuttled around the country - from Florida, to Louisiana, to a fortified bunker in Nebraska and finally to Washington.

The timing and route were explained by the White House much later as dictated by security considerations, but, for the best part of the day, President Bush seemed less the Commander-in-Chief than the commanded-in-chief.

Yet no one else was visibly at the helm.

For all the devolution of constitutional power to individual states, the United States has one of the more structured administrations in the Western world, and one of the most professionally competent.

Mr Bush, a trained manager with a Harvard MBA, streamlined the structures even further when he took office, combining a large measure of delegation with strict line management and accountability throughout the ranks. Yet there was little trace of a streamlined responsibility on Tuesday.

In his first statement, Mr Bush made an effort to imply that the chain of command was intact and operational. He stressed that he had spoken to the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, but this was hardly consoling in view of the Vice-President's history of heart trouble at times of high stress.

Secretary of State Colin Powell found some of the most appropriate words to rally the nation in adversity, but Mr Powell has long seemed out of the Bush inner circle in Washington - and was, in any case, flying back from Colombia at the time.

With all the major institutions of state in Washington evacuated, the only senior member of the administration to stay at his post was Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

He reportedly refused to join the evacuation, remaining with his depleted staff in a severely damaged building, and assisting with rescue work as best he could.





Americans might have expected a rescue operation worthy of the most advanced nation in the world, one expertly marshalled as a national disaster effort working from an existing mass disaster plan. Instead, they watched in horror as the first rescuers - among them no doubt some of the most highly trained specialists - lost their lives when the first World Trade Centre tower collapsed.



By yesterday, the President, cabinet, Congress and emergency services were starting to pull together.

The rescue services gained federal direction and resources. Congress was doing one of the things it does best, unleashing flights of high-flown rhetoric in a noble and single cause - national reassurance.

The President had found a more confident voice and was almost looking straight into the camera when he addressed America.

It is a measure of the scale and surprise of the terrorist assault that so structured and well-equipped an administration as that of the US seemed in such disarray. But the attack should also serve as a lesson to governments everywhere - there are disasters so far beyond comprehension that they cannot be prepared for. The responsibility of a government in such crises is to be visible and to rally the nation.

- INDEPENDENT

Full coverage: Terror in America

Pictures: Day 1 | Day 2

Brooklyn Bridge live webcam

Video

The fatal flights

Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims and survivors

These numbers are valid for calls from within New Zealand, but may be overloaded at the moment.

United Airlines: 0168 1800 932 8555

American Airlines: 0168 1800 245 0999

NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: 0800 872 111

US Embassy in Wellington (recorded info): 04 472 2068

Survivor databases

Air New Zealand flights affected

Air NZ flight information: 0800 737-000.