Katrina - Iraq war helped US prepare

That's according to Business Day.

After all, among his advisers were federalists who deplored the concept of expanding Washington’s power. They recognised that weather emergencies, like wars, often provide the excuse for just such expansion. Faced with a Katrina in the summer of 2001, the president, thinking as a federalist, might have been slower to call for Washington’s intervention. He might have said: this is a job for Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana. With a little help from Washington. And that, alas, probably would not have been sufficient.


September 11 changed Bush and the country. The homeland security office was created to co-ordinate local, state and federal responses.

The level of preparedness for a giant storm may not have been obvious outside the country. But the US was prepared for Katrina. All the old and new federal offices worked together and confronted the storm early. Nearly two days before Katrina hit New Orleans, the president made millions available to Louisiana by declaring the state an official disaster area.

[Listen up trolls that keep using this as "proof" that Bush was in charge of the disaster. What this means is Bush made emergency federal aid available to the state so they could take action. Bush has no power to order the miltary in, no power over the state's national guard, no power to declare martial law in Louisiana and no power to order the mayor to evacuate New Orleans. It's called "state's rights". Learn about it before you come commenting here again.]

In a press conference on the Sunday morning, he told the country to listen for any alerts — and warned straightforwardly that he could not “stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf coast communities”. That day, too, Alabama and Mississippi received access to cash when they were declared disaster areas. Residents of New Orleans with special needs were told to go to the Superdome.

Last Sunday also brought a mandatory evacuation order from the mayor of New Orleans. The hurricane made landfall only on Monday morning. And so on, in military fashion. As for troops, 30000 will be in the south soon — hardly a shortage.

The article concludes.

Most Americans know all this and are trying to rise to the special challenges this year has brought. To introduce politics at such a point would be not only wrong but low.

But that is exactly what the Democrats and leftwing moonbats around the world are doing - just as they always do.

No wonder around the world they keep losing elections and their rants over Katrina will ensure they continue to lose them.
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