Katrina's Aftermath

Watching the devastation in the wake of Katrina was brutal. Watching the political fingerpointing and blame game, leaves me to believe partisan politics is alive and well, regardless of the catastrope or setting.

I've watched numerous interviews all condemning the war in Iraq and the shortfall of Guardsmen in the US as the cause for the lack of quick response to the hurricane

A great response to this has been posted here.

So is the war in Iraq causing troop shortfalls for hurricane relief in New Orleans?

In a word, no. This from NRO

A look at the numbers should dispel that notion. Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.

That’s all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.

So where are the rest? 751,000 (74.2 percent) are in the U.S. About half are active duty, and half Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the real issue of course — the Left wants you to believe that the country has been denuded of its citizen soldiers, and that Louisiana has suffered inordinately because Guardsmen and women who would have been available to be mobilized by the state to stop looting and aid in reconstruction are instead risking their lives in Iraq.

Now, I believe Chertoff and Michael Brown do need to explain why the response was what it was, but it's a shame that the media is spending so much of their time allowing a few fringe people to play the blame game, versus looking at the reality of the situation, and the fact we should be coming together to repair after a devastating natural disaster.