In a media-driven culture, people are seduced into thinking that reality depends on what we say or how we feel. It doesn't. Strategy says that actions have to respond to two things: changes in climate and conditions on the ground. In listening to all the criticism about Katrina, I am not sure what the media expected. Did they think a deadly storm making landfall would do no damage? Did they think the a city built below sea level wouldn't ever flood? While supplies could have been delivered to the Superdome, I am doubt that anyone died because they didn't. Perhaps the city buses left in parking lots could have been used to evacuate more from the city, but many of people wouldn't have left and some would have died. Perhaps the feud between Maor Nagin and Governor Blanco caused problems, but not the real problems: the storm and flooding. We have had killer hurricanes every year for as long as I have been alive. Those storms have always killed people and destroyed property. These storms have been used as a justication for a bigger, more powerful government, but the increase in government "protection" has certainly increased the damage done and put more people in danger. It has certainly cost us money. The fact is government cannot protect us from the climate or the nature of the ground. Both Republicans and Democrats are going down the wrong road in thinking that more government is going to make people safe. By giving people the illusion that the government can take care of them, they are lulling people into a false and dangerous sense of security.