The Tornado in Kansas

As you should be aware, there was a huge tornado in Kansas this weekend. I heard on the radio that at the strongest point, the tornado cut a swath 1.7 miles wide. The whole town is destroyed. Luckily, fewer people died than would be expected from such a disaster.

My thoughts and prayers are with the citizens and family members of Greensburg.

But it didn't take long for the media to politicize this and how the Iraq war has caused the state to not be prepared for a time such as this. Isn't there some kind of psychological term for when everything you see is somehow related to one thing? Isn't that a form of religious fanaticism?

Anyway, the MSM reported this: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius says a shortage of trucks, helicopters and other equipment - all sent to the war in Iraq - has hampered recovery in a US town obliterated by a tornado.

"There is no doubt at all that this will slow down and hamper the recovery," Governor Sebelius, a Democrat, said in Kansas, where officials said the statewide death toll had risen to 12.

"Not having this equipment in place all over the state is a huge handicap."

"Boo Hoo! That meanie President Bush sent all my trucks and planes away and now I have nothing to help my citizens with."

Nowhere does it say how many of the actual Soldiers are deployed. I know for a fact that a lot of Guard units leave their stuff over there when the Soldiers themselves return from deployment. So, we really don't have the full story about who and what is here. It's unlikely we'll get it, too, since 1. The MSM likely won't tell us. 2. They couldn't get that info anyway because it's sensitive information. Troop strength and stuff, you know.

I'm not doubting that a majority of the Kansas NG stuff is in Iraq. But I'm doubting and questioning the reason something else.

We've been deploying the National Guard to foreign soil since Clinton was president, so for at least 10 years. They went with their stuff then, too, and brought it back when the mission was done. At what point did someone ever think, "Hey, a lot of our stuff is gone. Since we're the National Guard, and our main job is to help in times of domestic crisis, and our stuff is not here, shouldn't we get new stuff? Especially since we live in FREAKIN' TORNADO ALLEY! Especially since the EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED TWO YEARS AGO WITH HURRICANE KATRINA?"

I mean, come on. Really. No one had the foresight to think about this? I would love to know whose job it is to think of stuff like this.

I suppose, though, that it would have been a catch-22. "What? You have BRAND NEW equipment here in the States that you aren't sending to Iraq? You sent them to war and now you won't send them new equipment? You Loser."