People who claim we should abandon NO make me sick.
The city is sinking as a result of the government's straightening the Mississippi, which lowered the water levels beneath the city, and the efluvient soil compacted over time, and now it's below sea level. This same tampering has eroded coastline which protects the city (and everything inland from it).
Senator Mary Landrieu proposed (again) a project to redirect some of the river's flow and reinstate the coastline, to protect the nation's biggest port region. It would cost the equivalent of 2 weeks in Iraq. Unless this is done, I think it would be criminal to rebuild NO, as it would be setting the city up for another disaster along these lines.
Just rebuilding the levees (a continuous project since 1965, for crying out loud) is not a long-term solution, though it could well have avoided the situation we're in now.
There is a consensus in Washington to not lay blame, point fingers, or even scrutinize the conditions which brought this about.
That flies in the face of what the country seems to want (accountability), but that wouldn't be the first time Washington's been out of touch.
If we abandon NO to its fate, then that policy MUST be extended to Florida, Alaska, California, and every other site of potentially compromised occupation. Florida received record amounts of cash to rebuild last year, but every year it's gotten bailed out, even as it's population swells. Suggesting that NO should rot and its citizens be relocated is nothing more than calling for the dismantling of the federal government as we know it, and while that's fine as an argument, one making it should contemplate its ramifications, because they are truly collosal.