Pentagon Report Cites Cronyism & Iraq in Katrina Mishap

A confidential Pentagon report leaked to the press finds that "relief efforts to combat Hurricane Katrina suffered near catastrophic failures due to endemic corruption, divisions within the military and troop shortages caused by the Iraq war." You may recall, the Bush spin machine denied precisely this in the immediate aftermath of the storm. For instance, former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, who has already raked in huge Katrina reconstruction contracts for his lobbying clients, told the NY Times two days after the storm that "if anyone is telling you that Iraq is getting in the way, well that's hogwash." Looks like he - and the rest of the administration - was lying. Iraq and cronyism had a lot to do with why our government failed to respond adequately.

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