Giuliani ‘ready to help’ with Katrina aftermath

LOVELAND – Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said today he was “ready to help in any way” to assist in the recovery effort from Hurricane Katrina, but declined to criticize the official response to Katrina at the local, state or federal level.
Giuliani, who has been mentioned as a possible Katrina recovery administrator, shared his thoughts on the Katrina aftermath at a news conference and later to about 2,500 people at Bixpo 2005, where he was a keynote speaker. Giuliani’s 90-minute presentation capped a two-day lineup of speakers at the Budweiser Events Center that included Donald Trump, Seth Godin, Debbi Fields and Gary Hoover.
“It wouldn’t be fair” to compare the Katrina disaster to his own experiences in leading New York’s reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Giuliani said. Still, he suggested that a special task force should be formed eventually to review “what was done right and what was done wrong” with the Katrina reaction, similar to the so-called 9/11 Commission.
“That’s what should be done in the Katrina effort, rather than let politics get involved in it and allow finger pointing,” he said.
Giuliani framed his speech around six principles of leadership, for which he drew often from his 9/11 experiences.
First among the leadership principles was the importance of a belief system.
“In business, you have to have long-term goals you want to reach -things you want to achieve,” Giuliani said.
For instance, he credited the late Ronald Reagan for his adherence to two basic beliefs: “That Communism was evil and had to be confronted rather than negotiated with” and that “government, in the name of trying to help people …had become so oppressive it was holding people back.”
Because of such goals, Reagan “always knew where he was going.”
Giuliani’s other five principles included optimism, courage, preparation, teamwork and communication.
“Relentless preparation” came into play during the 9/11 reaction, even though New York City had not planned specifically for the possibility of airplanes being used as missiles.
The city did have “25 or 30 plans for emergencies,” including the gas attacks on the subway system, high-rise fires or even an accidental plane crash in a building.
As a result, when the terrorist attack occurred, most of the responses required had been discussed in relation to other possibilities.
“Either we’d done it before, or we had a plan for doing it,” Giuliani said.
For that reason, Giuliani dismissed critics of the government who are complaining that too much emphasis has been placed on preparation for terrorism, to the detriment of natural disaster preparation.
“Those things are not mutually exclusive,” he said. “The idea that if you put a lot of emphasis on terrorism, you’re not going to be prepared for a natural disaster … is wrong … If you’re good at one, you’ll be good at the other.”
In a question-and-answer period with the audience, Giuliani, a Republican, was asked about his presidential aspirations, a question that prompted applause from many in the audience.
“It’s too early to make that decision,” he said. “It’s probably a decision you make about a year from now.”

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