Benefits of Iraq war

Guardsman Jason believes that the National Guard's response to Hurricane Katrina has been great and, in fact, better thanks to having been used in Iraq.

I would argue that despite the absence of part of the LAARNG in Iraq, the overall quality of the response, and the rapidity with which it was able to be delivered, is perhaps BETTER as a result of the war in Iraq. And our nation benefits indirectly from the leadership and logistics lessons learned by our National Guard officers and NCOs as a result of their widespread deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kudos to the LAARNG for not going in prematurely. This is one operation where you absolutely needed overwhelming force, and to go in like a bolt of lightning. Good work, brothers and sisters.

We were all too "emotional", as Condoleezza Rice said. The past day or so I've been wondering if the eventual evaluation of the relief effort might show that it was far better than the current accepted wisdom. Jason obviously thinks so.