Purpose of Gulf Oil Spill

I look at the oil challenge as opening pandora's box. We are moving toward a change that the mind does not understand yet. What is apparent is the ignorance surrounding this event with BP not being prepared and the white house not having the expertise and practical work experience to play their role effectively. The President is learning the hard way because of the lack of understanding of dealing with a crisis.

During the cold war when I worked for a company that provided the communication equipment for the 637 class trident nuclear submarine, we had many redundancies built in the areas where if there was an equipment failure, another would come on so we would always be able to hear the enemy. For example, we had six SHF receiver units, one running at a time, because they were critical to the performance of the system. The cost was almost six times higher than just having one unit. One time, all the backup went down. The group of us responsible galvanized into action and had the sub back on track within 72 hours. Now I know this is different than the oil spill, but back before this well was drilled, redundancy should have been incorporated for any potential crisis. I look at this current situation and think that when drilling so deep underwater where no human can go yet, there should have been a backup well. Since public companies focus on the making money for the shareholders, the federal government could have taken an active role to require this as part of regulation.

For a government agency to be effective, people with practical work and management experience are required. Education only goes so far. It is being in the field, having experienced a crisis and resolving it, that provides the understanding on managing catastrophe's. Our president and his administration lack this important view. What drew me to this conclusion beyond the obvious occurred when the president told BP to fire the CEO and he has not even talked to him directly. I can only shake my head and wonder to what extent this situation will go until the blind can see through experiencing each day with this.