The Face Of Disaster

We're looking at the worst natural disaster in American history, but we don't have the troops that we need to help. The National
Guard has been deployed to Iraq where things have gone hideously wrong and continue to get worse to the point where one has to wonder if America is capable of making things better or if it isn't time we look at ourselves as the problem, take a scalpel to the cancer we have become.

Hundreds died this week in the Gulf States. The unique American city of New Orleans drowned beneath the broken levees. Looting broke out. Oil prices spiked. It will be months before residents are able to return. Tens of thousands are homeless. The Guardsmen that are on duty have all already been in Iraq, the other's are still there. Alabama's National Guard is at 78% as recruiting and retention problems have strained the service to the breaking point.

Trace the problems with the Guard to the Middle East. When President Bush joined the National Guard he did it to avoid service in foreign wars, a loophole his administration has effectively closed. Meanwhile, at least 800 Iraqis die after a stampede caused by a rumor of a suicide bomber. Could things be worse?

Think about that again. 800 dead, one incident, a rumor. Eight hundred. About double what many are estimating will be the death toll in the Gulf States. Like everyone else I'm hoping the death toll is at the low end. But one incident in Iraq kills twice as many as the worst natural disaster in the history of our country. The cost of Katrina is estimated at $25 Billion. The cost of the Iraq war is hundreds of billions and growing with nothing to show for it.

We're seeing the radical cost of our man made tragedy played out in our submerged coastline. Our resources, stretched too thin to control looting in our own country. We have to pay for the mistakes of our administration; to deal with a God that does not take our ill-advised wars into account when planning his storms. The hurricane and our war are not related, only our ability to deal with them. So now we have to pray. Pray both for more survivors in Louisianna, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. Pray for food and water and the heroism of the rescue workers already on the scene, searching in boats and planes and helicopters to help the living, to bring relief to that sea of devastation already referred to as "our tsunami" "Hiroshima." And pray also for a speedy end to the conflict we have mishandled in the Middle East since the moment we went in. Pray for our soldiers there, our Guardsmen who are needed back home, and for relief from the unnatural devastation and suffering of the people of Iraq.