[DP5Ups8o]

The only thing I blame Bush for when Katrina hit was that he hadn't appointed a competent person to head FEMA. After all, when disaster strikes, even the White House is supposed to take cues from FEMA, but Michael Brown didn't really know what to do. So Bush was vacationing, which is fine, except any competent FEMA director would have told the president with urgency that he better pay attention to what's happening.

I don't think the military should be used just because incompetent folks were hired in positions they weren't qualified for. The National Guard and many other agencies are equipped in disaster relief efforts, it's just this time, roughly 40% of the National Guard is fighting in a war when they ought to be at home. In the case of Katrina, had a more hands-on director been hired, that person would have been on top of everything, including many of the areas where a mayor or Governor might be forgetting or unaware. The help was there, and in many cases, the help was ready, it's just they didn't get the call until days later. Part of that is FEMA's job, and part of that is good communication between FEMA and the White House, which there wasn't. No military needed, just good planning.