After two difficult years of war in Iraq, it is obvious that the United States is in way over its head. Almost every day, we hear of another insurgent attack or road-side bomb that kills American soldiers. After Saddam Hussein's army fell, many insurgents took it upon themselves to fight the "imperialist" army of the United States. The frequency, intensity and coordination of attacks has increased over the last year. With each attack, the insurgency grows bolder and the resistance against U.S. forces in Iraq increases.

With no end in sight, the army has turned to the reserves to provide a backbone for the war in Iraq. As the Iraq situation continues to deteriorate, army enlistment has dropped significantly. With the next major deployment of troops around the corner, the U.S. army will be hard-pressed to find sufficient manpower to keep order in Iraq.

Recent events show that the U.S. army is so overextended that it cannot even keep order within its own borders. Furthermore, the Bush administration chose an unnecessary war in Iraq over ensuring the safety of its own citizens at home. Paul Krugman of The New York Times wrote an article last week in which he said, "Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans."

Granted, it is understandable that the government may not have been able to provide the estimated $15 billion it would have taken to make all of the levees safe in New Orleans. But at least it could have had a military plan to get all of the people out of New Orleans, especially the poor and elderly-many of whom could not fend for themselves. Instead, the Bush administration stalled and left nearly 100,000 of the most vulnerable locals of New Orleans in the path of Katrina.

After the storm, the Louisiana National Guard was sorely needed to keep order in and evacuate people from New Orleans. Chaos raged all across the city, especially in public shelters, where many were forced to stay. Unfortunately, over 3,000 troops of the Louisiana National Guard are deployed overseas in Iraq. Most of their amphibious vehicles, which could have been used to rescue people from flooded areas, are likewise in Iraq. The New Orleans National Guard is overextended like the rest of the military and therefore cannot sufficiently take care of the disaster area. The reality is that while American citizens were dying preventable deaths in New Orleans, their national guard was off fighting an unnecessary war-a war which I still have not heard a sound reasoning for starting. Regardless of the war's justification, the Bush administration should have made sure it had all its bases covered at home before deploying most of our military forces overseas.

Michael Serviansky '09