When things settle down, and the derangement cools off, investigations will be conducted.

What will be found is that the prime culprit has been low-level corruption at all tiers of government. It's no secret that the Corps of Engineers has been a prime pork receptacle since before I was born. It was famous for it. Money went to projects that spent money in favored districts with favored contractors, not where it was needed most. Many COE projects are sheer boondoggles. The idea that COE mismanagement, underfunding, or overfunding started in January of 2001 is idiotic.

Similarly, it became obvious when Homeland Security was being funded that the Congress was using that as a pork festival, too. Odds are very good that money did not go where it was needed most, and much money went where it would pay political favors. You aren't hearing much about this, either.

For years, the American idea of disaster response has been for local authorities to pick up what they can, and call on state, and then Federal authority as needed.

We now have the spectacle of people wondering why the United States Air Force was not dropping water bottles from airplanes the day after the hurricane, or why Marines were not dropping from helicopters and shooting looters. Hello?

When the investigation is done in Washington--and there will be one (politicians are already clawing for the spotlight)--the answers are going to be a long series of bureaucratic screwups, inherent in a centralized monolithic system like Homeland Security. Heads will roll. Not many. There will be calls for "efficiency." Not many people will remember that efficiency and freedom are not congruent sets.

When the Congress panics--and they will (where do you think Homeland Security and the Patriot Act came from?)--something very bad will probably be done to the way military forces and the power to command them are distributed in this country.

When the long and complicated chain of command (with its checks and balances) from the United States military down through the Guard to the cop on the corner, is turned into a single solid bar of steel going straight down the line, it will be so much more efficient.

And remember, you asked for it.