OPINION:
President Obama’s “get tough” strategy in the BP oil-well crisis focuses too early on “Who shot John?” while the well disgorges 60,000 gallons daily (“Obama talks tough on spill,” Web, News, June 8). Ineptly, the administration’s response to the worst ecological disaster since Chernobyl is to seek financial damages.
What we’ve got in the White House is an ambulance chaser when we need an emergency medical technician. While the “patient” bleeds to death, Mr. Obama runs after the next of kin with promises of compensation.
We need more from the Oval Office. We need a leader, not a litigator. Mr. Obama ought to be using the influence of the White House to assemble the best experts in the nation and give them one job: Stop the oil leak as soon as possible. Bring together the brightest minds from academia, science and engineering to put real options on the table. Put all our oil-spill response teams at the disposal of one crisis director and give them whatever they need.
Surely the president has seen the movie “Apollo 13.” Mr. Obama, get a Gene Kranz in the building and stop chasing ambulances.
BRAD BROEMMEL
Nokesville, Va.
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