Too Little Too Late?

It looks as though the National Guard is now in New Orleans a full four days after hurricane Katrina tore through the city and parts of the Gulf coast, and after numerous pleas from the city’s mayor, Ray Nagin, who has had more than a few words to say about the lack of resources entering into the city.

He told the WWL-AM radio station earlier today: “You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans” (click here for the full transcript).

Now, in the midst of rape, violence and bloodshed as some police barricade themselves into their headquarters, the troops have arrived with food, water and weapons.

For many of the evacuees, surrounded for days by a seemingly endless level of urban terrorism, these troops are the answer to their survival. They are the bringers of order and safety.

For others, their arrival is too little, too late.

As 46-year-old Michael Levy told Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed when asked if he was pleased to see the troops, “Hell no, I’m not glad to see them. They should have been here days ago. I ain’t glad to see ‘em. I’ll be glad when 100 buses show up.

To this, people surrounding Levy showed their approval, screaming “Hell, yeah! Hell yeah!”

“We’ve been sleeping on the … ground like rats,” Levy told the AP. “I say burn this whole … city down” (read the rest of this story here).

The question is, why did deployment take so long? Certainly, the fact that a great number of American troops are now overseas is likely a major factor. But if that is the case, should any nation, even one as powerful as the United States, place a majority of its troops in one location without preparing for possible disaster on the homefront?

The simple answer is “no.” The more complicated answer can probably be summarized by the phrase, “we just didn’t think about it.”

If it is not a lack of numbers that has brought about this slow mobilization, then what is it?

We can only speculate the answer, but this question is still worth asking: If tragedy along these lines had struck Florida or Texas, would the troops have been deployed sooner?

There is no simple way to answer this. Quite frankly, we have no way of knowing.

Meanwhile the number of confirmed deaths from post-hurricane conditions continues to rise.