A Pentagon report says
the debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Gulf Coast all stem from the same lack of planning, according to The Independent. But in the case of Katrina, New Orleans local government officials don't escape blame.
The report was done by Stephen Henthorne, a former professor at the Army War College and deputy director of teh Lousiana relief effort.
Some quotes from the article on the flip.
The report states that Brigadier General Michael D Barbero, commander of the Joint Readiness Training Centre at Fort Polk, Louisiana, refused permission for special forces units who volunteered to join relief efforts, to do so. General Barbero also refused to release other troops.
"The same general did take in some families from Hurricane Katrina, but only military families living off the base," the report says. "He has done a similar thing for military families displaced by Hurricane Rita. However, he declined to share water with the citizens of Leesville, who are out of water, and his civil affairs staff have to sneak off post in civilian clothes to help coordinate relief efforts." The report says deployment in the Iraq war led to serious problems. "Another major factor in the delayed response to the hurricane aftermath was that the bulk of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard was deployed in Iraq. (...)
The report concludes: "The one thing this disaster has demonstrated [is] the lack of coordinated, in-depth planning and training on all levels of Government, for any/all types of emergency contingencies. 9/11 was an exception because the geographical area was small and contained, but these two hurricanes have clearly demonstrated a national response weakness ... Failure to plan, and train properly has plagued US efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq and now that failure has come home to roost in the United States."
Emphasis added.
Not that any of us needed to be told that these are all symptoms of the same problem - i.e., a fundamental lack of competence in the current administration, exacerbated by nepotistic appointments to key jobs - but it's nice to see that validated officially.