by James Glaser
September 7, 2005

Hurricanes can cover lots of things. For Washington, most think this storm has been a real headache, but there is a sliver lining. President Bush's poll numbers have been heading down for months, because of the way the Iraq war is going, and the popularity of Cindy Sheehan's anti-war message was driving the White House nuts.

Things were going so bad before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush had to get out on the road, trying to rally the Nation to his war. True his only stops were at military bases or a VFW convention, but they all looked positive on the evening news. Still his numbers were going south, and he needed something to take Iraq off the front page.

So, what can you do when you have the cover of a National disaster? Well, you can start escalating an unfavorable war. Things were not going our way in Iraq, but Washington didn't want to start any new big push there because they kept saying that the Iraqi forces we were training were about to take over. Bush's 'line of the month' in August was "When the Iraqis stand up, Americans can stand down."

If you listened to George, you could almost see our troops packing up their equipment, but in real life, they couldn't. Just like in Vietnam, the Pentagon is convinced that with a few more major operations, it will be a "slam dunk" as they say. So, what better time to make that big push in Iraq, than when all eyes were on New Orleans?

While the nation is talking about bodies floating in the toxic waters down south, Marine jets are bombing bridges and cities in Iraq. Last month that would have brought an uproar from the anti-war majority that Sheehan had become the spokesman for. Now she can't even get copy.

We are six days into the month and we have six more dead American Soldiers. If things in Iraq are on par with the last two years, we also have another hundred or so wounded.

If you think about it, things are some what the same on the Gulf Coast, and in Iraq. Americans are dying, but the numbers never seem to come out on time. There is always a lag time, so that the shock isn't so bad.

People were up in arms about the changing rational for going to war, and so we had a Congressional investigation. That took many months, no heads rolled, and facts faded from view. Today the President is talking about another Congressional investigation. This investigation will look at why no help was given to the victims of the Hurricane, it will take months, and the facts will also fade.

The fact is that the Hurricane did wonders for the President and his war. It took Iraq off the front page along with Cindy Sheehan. The Pentagon got to pull out the heavy guns under the cover of storm news, and the fact that August was the third most deadly month for American troops was covered by that storm surge. For George Bush, even with all the mistakes made in disaster relief, this hurricane was a blessing. In fact if things would have gone better with the relief effort, the storm news would not have given Bush the cover he needed.... I wonder.