It’s sad when, because you are too proud, arrogant or incompetent, innocent people suffer for it.

It’s been some 20 months since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and many people still haven’t gotten their lives back and, as we know, the federal government still hasn’t lived up to its commitment to these people.

So, it really ticks me off to know that help for those affected by this tragedy has been and is still being squandered. Many of our foreign allies stepped up with offers to help and our government simply dropped the ball. Just how bad is it? Check this out:

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

In addition, valuable supplies and services — such as cellphone systems, medicine and cruise ships — were delayed or declined because the government could not handle them. In some cases, supplies were wasted.

The struggle to apply foreign aid in the aftermath of the hurricane, which has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $125 billion so far, is another reminder of the federal government’s difficulty leading the recovery. Reports of government waste and delays or denials of assistance have surfaced repeatedly since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck in 2005.

You know, our government’s leadership can find ways around the rules to detain people in Guantanamo Bay, to spy on Americans and to politicize science but, suddenly, it can’t adjust the rules to actually help its own citizenry? This is either arrogance or incompetence of the highest magnitude. In either case, people are suffering for it.

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