I hereby charge Lt. General Arthur Williams with negligent homicide. He, among others, is responsible for the body count of New Orleans.

We all know that the Army Corps of Engineers created the situation where this city was all but killed. Now it is time to name names.

The “Commandeers� of the Army Corps of Engineers generally serve for about four years. So there are many to blame.

Emerson C. Itchner has the best name among them. Old Itchy served as the head of the Corps from 1956 to 1961. I command him to come to New Orleans and kiss the feet of its residents. No, I command him to kiss the feet of someone who has spent hours gutting a house in ninety-five-degree humidity. Penance, Itchner, penance.

This goes for you, too, Lt. General Elvin Heiberg. This fella worked in New Orleans for some years back in the seventies. I sentence you to live for six months in one of our gutted houses. Enjoy the neighborhood, Elvin.

You may find all of these names on the Army Corps’ website. There you can see the faces of these men, and their teeth.

There is another enjoyable name on the list: Lt. General Robert Flowers, or General Flowers. Frankly, that sounds made up. Bob, you are sentenced to spread some general flowers around the city. It might be a good idea to pay extra attention to those houses with a number other than zero in the lower quadrant of the fluorescent X. Those are the dead, Flowers.

If we can show that any of these men knew of the real danger these levees posed, the threat to life, then we can up the charges — premeditated murder, anyone?

To those of you around the country, if you see yourself being protected by a levee or dam or other structure built by the Corps, run for your lives.

Then there is Joe Ballard, the Army Corps Commander from 1996 to 2000. Joe is from Oakdale, Louisiana. He is also the only African-American in this all-white country club of commanders. Joe, I hope you have many sleepless nights thinking about what you did to New Orleans.

Guilty, guilty, guilty. Every one of the commanders who commanded over the decay and final destruction of these levees. Hell, these lazy commanders didn’t even build them right in the first place. They didn’t know that New Orleans has soft ground? That these levees would sink? How far back should we go for this roll call of guilty men?

It wasn’t always this way. Negligence did not always characterize this Corps. Brigadier General Don Christie Kingman was thanked by the Louisiana legislature for his excellent work during the 1890 Louisiana Flood. The Corps has not always been a failure.

If I hear anyone say that this is a “black eye� for the Corps, I am going to give that person a black eye. Black eyes heal. This is not a mere black eye, this is a Bill Buckner moment: the error that stains your reputation forever.

Then there is the man who commanded over the fall of the levees, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock. Poor Carl appears to be unable to complete his term.

I have a few parting words for your retirement party, Carl: may your grandchildren grow up to love jazz and gumbo. May they learn to look at you with angry eyes.