Fight in Iraq, or Help in America -- Take Your Pick.

President Bush is scheduled to visit Greensburg, Kan., Wednesday, but there really isn't much to see.

The town was virtually obliterated Friday night by a ferocious tornado that was nearly two miles wide and possessed winds of more than 200 miles per hour.

Greensburg was a farming community in the south-central part of the state with a population of about 1,500. At least 10 people were killed by the tornado. The death toll would have been higher, but sirens blew and residents got at least 20 minutes of warning to get to their basements.

Greensburg today looks like a World War I battlefield, with shattered trees and scattered mounds of rubble.

According to local news accounts, residents of nearby towns provided what aid they could in the hours that followed the terrible winds. The Salvation Army "set up its kettles," and individuals loaded their pickup trucks with water and drove to Greensburg and other Kansas towns hit by the storm.

The National Guard also responded. The National Guard is meant to respond to such things.

But the Guard could not do the job it was meant to do because Guard equipment and troops are in Iraq.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that a shortage of tents, trucks, helicopters and trained personnel that had been sent to Iraq was hampering rescue and aid efforts.

"Not having this equipment in place all over the state is a huge handicap," she said. "We're getting pounded in Kansas."

Heavy equipments was needed to clear the roads and also remove enough rubble to make it possible to search for survivors and recover the dead.

Sebelius, a Democrat, who had previously complained to the Defense Department and Bush about the drain on National Guard resources, said she lacked about half the large equipment she needs for recovery efforts.

The White House responded to this the same way it responded after Hurricane Katrina: It was not the White House's fault. It was the governor's fault. The governor had not requested the equipment.

"If you don't request it, you're not going to get it," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday morning. "As far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios. There have been no requests to the National Guard for heavy equipment."

But this seemed an odd defense to me. Were they not watching their TV sets at the White House? Do they not possess computers? Reports about Greensburg and pictures of the tornado were on the Internet within minutes after the disaster struck.

Assuming the White House has some contact with reality, why did aides sit back and wait for a request from Kansas? Maybe the governor was a little busy in Kansas, what with two-mile wide tornadoes roaming the state and all. Why didn't the White House respond on its own?

Maybe Sebelius didn't make the proper request.

Maybe she is a nitwit, a scoundrel and a rogue. Maybe she is the worst governor that ever drew breath. (And that is saying something.)

But why should the people of Kansas suffer for that when the federal government, we are told, was willing and able to help, but merely lacked the proper request?

Does this make sense? Or, in reality, was the aid effort hampered by exactly what Sebelius claims: a National Guard that is so busy fighting for the Iraqis it cannot help aid Americans?

A group called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq hosted a conference call Tuesday to provide people to make that claim.

Melvyn Montano, former adjutant general of the New Mexico National Guard, a Vietnam veteran who served 45 years in the military, said: "The problem is the Guard is overburdened, overstressed, and all that equipment is gone. Our dogs are gone; our nurses are gone; our water purification is gone. We have to move debris and people (in Greensburg). We have to maintain security and feed the homeless. But our mobile facilities are overseas. We need to bring our troops back home to provide homeland security in the United States. Now, we are doing it in Baghdad."

Kansas State Sen. Donald Betts, D-Wichita, said: "We can spend billions a week to take care of another country, but we don't have resources to take care of our own citizens who fund this war. The governor should not have to go out and request equipment. The administration should have been all over this. There should have been a plan in place."

Jane Bullock, former chief of staff to James Lee Witt, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 1992 to 2000, said: "Minutes after the president declared this a disaster, all assets should have been there (in Kansas). There is no need for requests. Here it is Tuesday, and they are still doing search and rescue because they have to bring in units from out of state."

The White House is unimpressed by such claims. "We are eager to provide what Kansas needs," Tony Snow said. "But again there are also — you also have to go through the process of making the request first."

So don't depend on the White House to actually keep track of disasters in this country. The staff is just there to wait for the paperwork to come in.

By Tuesday afternoon, Snow admitted that Sebelius had requested more than FM radios, including search-and-rescue teams.

And Snow did point out that the federal government has made funds available to Kansas to get the heavy equipment it needs through private contractors.

Sound familiar? Sound expensive? Sound like, once again, federal policy is to help private contractors even when federal troops should be ready, willing and able to respond, instead?

Perhaps President Bush will announce on Wednesday that he is fixing all these problems.

But if he does not, I have some advice for you: Have your paperwork ready!

If disaster strikes your town and your house is blown away, and if you need to search through the rubble for your loved ones, make sure you have the proper forms at hand. Just fill them out and mail them in. If you can find a mailbox.

Oh, and be sure to get them notarized.

To find out more about Roger Simon, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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