Why They Didn't Send in Troops Immediately

The BBC reports:

"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told the Reuters news agency before he left on Sunday.

A body lies face down in water next to the Superdome Death was everywhere, both inside and outside the Superdome "A young lady was being raped and stabbed.

"And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them.

"He jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead," Mr Banka said.

Cf. here for more whining.

By the way, has the Federal government ever had a successful rapid reponse to catastrophe? Local governments have sometimes responded rapidly. The Federal government is usually on hand a week later writing checks. That makes sense when the local government is competent.

I recall the clueless response to the 911 attacks. Some of the people killed at the Pentagon were apparently watching the television reports of the World Trade Center instead of organizing a rapid response. For that matter, it took days for aid to arrive after the recent tsunami.