With a new week, and the possibility of additional Ebola patients, Americans — or at least American politicians — have an urgent need: Someone to blame.
After all, while more than 4,000 Africans dying of Ebola was not enough to grab America’s attention, two infected nurses in the US is a full-fledged crisis.
To save readers from viewing hours of repetitive cable television and political advertising, I assembled a handy list of villains proposed (or soon to be proposed) by talking heads of the left and right. Feel free to select one or more.
- US President Barack Obama, for caring about Africans more than he cares about Americans.
- Republicans, for starving the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention of funds so it could not prepare for Ebola.
- Michelle Obama, for tricking the CDC into promoting exercise and healthy eating instead of preparing for Ebola.
- Liberians.
- Republicans, for starving the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of funds so that it could not discover a cure for Ebola.
- The NIH, for squandering the ample funds generously appropriated by Republicans on lazy bureaucrats and self-indulgent research.
- Democrats and Republicans, for forcing the NIH to spend money on illnesses with well-organized constituencies (e.g., cancer) and not in areas with the most potential return on investment.
- Sierra Leoneans.
- Republicans, for denigrating Washington so regularly that good people do not want to serve in government.
- Democrats, for coddling government unions that drive good people out of government with mindless anti-meritocracy.
- President Obama, for not standing taller against denigration of government service or coddling of government unions.
- The World Health Organisation, for missing the ball as the epidemic bloomed.
- President Obama, for not listening to the World Health Organisation’s warnings on Ebola.
- Anti-smoking activists, for pressuring the World Health Organisation to detour from its core mission.
- Guineans.
- The National Rifles Association (NRA), for opposing a nominee for surgeon general because he wanted to reduce gun violence.
- Congress, for taking orders from the NRA.
- CDC director Thomas Frieden, for not keeping that nurse off the airplane.
- NIH official Anthony Fauci, for not telling Frieden to keep the nurse off the plane.
- President Obama, for not at least banning dogs with Ebola from airplanes (if dogs can catch Ebola).
- Ron Klain. He was appointed Ebola czar last Friday. Why hasn’t he solved the problem yet?
- Africans.
So far, thank goodness, no one has died after contracting Ebola in the US. Before this outbreak is contained, some people may. Hopefully, along the way, America will learn to better prepare for epidemics so as to respond more nimbly next time. At its best, the process of identifying villains can promote that learning and improvement. Demanding accountability in a democracy can be ugly, but it is essential.
At the same time, as politicians called for Frieden’s head last week, I found myself thinking about Rick Atkinson’s incomparable trilogy on the US military in Europe during Second World War. As the Allies move from North Africa to Italy and finally to France, their story is one of heroism and brilliant strategy, but also unthinkable blunders, squandered lives and lessons painfully learned or inexcusably ignored.
But there were no congressional hearings two weeks into the war demanding Eisenhower’s resignation.
I asked Atkinson whether censorship could explain the difference, or whether something more fundamental has changed.
“Censorship didn’t hide bad news, but only delayed it,” he told me in an email. “Inevitably the ugly truth would out, of calamity at Kasserine [Pass], or near debacle at Salerno, or a failed gambit at Anzio, or huge casualties at [Monte] Cassino. There was no censoring the casualty lists. I do think the delay helped make bad news more palatable because it was quickly eclipsed by other news, generally trending good in World War II,” he added. “To your larger point, I think the sense of unity, of common goals, of minimised partisanship helped brace people against setbacks.”
What is striking in the present case is how the absence of that sense of unity feeds on itself. Obama should not have suggested that Ebola was unlikely to reach America, Frieden should not have assured Americans that every hospital would be ready on Day One.
But in a climate that is so unforgiving, so quick to pounce, so unwilling to accept that mistakes will be made and should be learned from, it is understandable that leaders trap themselves into promising more than they can deliver.
A desire for accountability does not have to preclude a certain generosity of spirit or some empathy for those who are performing public service. We seem to have forgotten that.
— Washington Post
