I'll give you prosecuting the Iraq War.

But the Katrina thing, I'm sorry. That's one that was unfairly blamed on the federal government. If you looked at national emergency doctrine that has been in place since FEMA was established you would see that the federal role is to support, not direct, search & rescue as well as recovery.

The failures were multi-stepped and started at the local level about 16 years ago when the Hurricane Pam drills (whatever they were called back then...) began. These drills were run to test the local and state responses to hurricane emergencies in NOLA. Later the feds were invited in as full participants in their proper role of advise & support. At the end of each drill, which lasts a week, the participants did a post exercise analysis. In EVERY analysis the participants informed the state and local agencies that communications was a critical weak link. Nobody ever did anything about it.

Up until 9/11 federal doctrine was to have a separate and independent communication system to which states could buy-in. I don't think any state did until after 9/11 when the breakdown of communications in New York was a critical factor in the catastrophic loss of life. Even to this day there are state and local agencies across the USA that are not tied-into the emergency comm. By law it cannot be federally mandated, only encouraged.

In NOLA 4 days before the storm the local and state govs was sure they had everything under control and informed the fed they were prepared (as did MS, TX, AL). The governor activated NG in NOLA and the area and prepositioned them in NOLA & the area.

3 days before landfall NOAA informed the governor & FEMA that the storm was going to be catastrophic and that they should totally evacuate the city. The president asked the governor to declare an official state of emergency so that he could legally activate federal resources. It takes about a week to spin-up the whole emergency response system. She did not officially make the request until the night before the storm struck NOLA. This put an automatic 2 day delay into the federal response. Remember, the response is not instantaneous. The bureaucracy has to redirect it's resources. Orders have to be issued. Wives & husbands have to be informed. family arrangements made, etc. Even though procedures are in place -- the fed is not a military operation. Families first, mission second. In the military it's mission first, family second. Huge difference.

For the first few hours on the day the storm struck all 3 levels of government thought they had dodged the bullet. It passed to the East of NOLA. The weak, western side hit NOLA. The western side has less storm surge, lower winds, less rain. People began to relax. "You're doing a hell of a job, Brownie".

Then for a variety of reasons, the levees gave way. That's when the local government discovered that most of the police & fire and public service employees (including bus drivers) had abandoned NOLA in anticipation of the storm. Emergency responders had deserted.

The NG were flooded in their armories. Their comm centers were flooded. their HQ was flooded. They were rendered ineffective.

The governor had not activated the NG throughout the state, only the local area. It takes about 3 days to activate the guard. It takes a week to get the federal SUPPORT staff in place. At that time the fed had NO 1st Response plan. First response by fed was not the doctrine worked-out over the previous 40 years. Local & state were 1st responders.

The affected area -- the area in a state of disaster -- was about the size of England. This was geographically the largest single natural national disaster since the 1927 flood.

So the fed activated 1st responders in California, Arizona, Ohio, Texas, and I think Georgia & Kentucky. It takes them 3 days to get to NOLA under normal circumstances.

But it is not normal. There is no comm. The airport was shut down. There was no power or water.

Then the chief of police essentially lost his mind, IMO. He started reporting rumors as fact. Roving rape gangs, crazed druggies, random murders, shots fired at rescuers etc. Almost all later proven false but it put an already dysfunctional city into a complete freaking panic -- all on international news.

On the day after the storm the president was informed that there was a total breakdown of the police and NG -- essentially the state was AWOL, too. At that time he activated the 82nd Airborne and placed a general in charge legally empowered with martial law, if he so chose to invoke it. The first 2 days after the storm the local gov was ineffective and the state gov was in a panic. This general showed up and read them the riot act and put FEMA directly under his command, effectively cutting DC out of the loop. He didn't trust the state NG command and so, didn't use the NG. Instead, he ordered elements of the 82nd to report to NOLA with combat support for a week. He ordered special ops from USAF and USN to NOLA. I saw them going out at night.

Panic stopped.

I was there. I saw it. I worked it.

B