by James Glaser
September 2, 2005

Hurricane Katrina has given us a glimpse of what happens to people when their world comes crashing down around them. In Iraq, their hurricane Katrina was the United States Army and Marines, not Mother Nature.

Here at home, the richest country on the globe, we have people running amok after just a few days of chaos. Many Americans could not understand the Iraqi people looting everything they could after days and days of bombings and war. Today we watch as Americans do many of the same things the Iraqis did.

To a certain point, all humans are the same, and when they are confronted with something (War or Natural Disaster) that overwhelms them, many will take advantage of a chance to enrich themselves, because there is no one to stop them.

Many in America found fault in the Iraqis response to the devastation of their environment, having a smug belief that here in the United States, we would handle things better. Now we know that we are not that much different than the Iraqis.

In Iraq, the government was totally gone, no one was in charge, while everything here is in place, and we still we see chaos.

With hundreds of thousands of Americans suddenly forced into homelessness, Washington did a stutter step, and failed to provide the response every American expected. We all know we have the supplies and the technology to deliver them, but we are lacking the leadership needed to get the job done.

The Sun Herald, of Biloxi, Mississippi, reports, "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics." The Herald went on with, "We need the President to back up his declaration of a disaster with a declaration of every man and woman under his command will do whatever is necessary to deal with that disaster."

Today, we are able to get some idea of what happens in a war zone, and how chaos takes over. We are only four days into this disaster and we can already see the blank looks on many people's faces. Everyday now, more and more people will suffer from lack of care. The people of Iraq have been in their chaos of war for years now, with no relief in sight.

Hopefully some good will come out of this monumental disaster. One thing it could do, is show America what happens when we attack another country. The suffering of those we attack is on par with what we see on the Gulf Coast of America today, only in a War, the Hurricane can last for weeks, months, or even years.