CITIZEN SOLDIERS

From your Chicago Tribune:

About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guardsmen and 37 percent of Mississippi's have been deployed to Iraq or to support the war, but there are still enough troops to respond to Hurricane Katrina, a National Guard spokesman said Monday.

About 3,500 Army National Guardsmen in Louisiana have been activated to help with security, shelter, removing debris and distributing water and food, said spokesman Jack Harrison of the National Guard Bureau. That's about half the 6,500 troops who are available for the crisis.

So thanks to our adventure in Iraq, there is a grand total of 6,500 Louisiana Guardsmen available to deal with the fall out from what may be the greatest national disaster in modern US history.

Just for the sake of comparison: The first President Bush sent in 23,000 troops to secure the area affected by Hurricane Andrew -- and they didn't have to evacuate a city the size of New Orleans.