A few months ago the International Medical Corps reported that survivors of Hurricane Katrina living in temporary FEMA trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi were 15 times as likely to commit suicide as people in the rest of the United States. Suicide attempts in the trailer parks were 79 times the national average.

Rates of domestic violence against women were significantly higher in the FEMA trailer park; incidents of rape were 54 times the national average since the displacement caused by the hurricane. Residents in FEMA trailer parks were seven times as likely to feel depressed as people living in other parts of the US and most residents didn’t feel safe after dark.

While none of this is surprising, all of this is awful. We’re not talking about Iraqi refugees fleeing a war zone. We’re talking about US citizens from New Orleans committing suicide because a hurricane ended life as they knew it in a country they thought would come to their aid in a crisis.

We aren’t dealing with the aftermath of Katrina just like we won’t deal with the aftermath of Iraq.

When coalition forces leave Iraq (which they eventually will) there will be a civil war, or a series of civil wars, as the Sunnis and Shiites win and lose the upper hand. There will be no peace for long time.

The US won’t be in Iraq for that. Just as the US wasn’t in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. The United States effectively abandoned New Orleans to Katrina, and the US has certainly abandoned the survivors to the aftermath.

As far as caring for the well-being of its citizens, the US government has abandoned the United States. As long as we are convinced that we are being kept safe from a vast and powerful foreign enemy we will not make a fuss if our bridges collapse or a few hundred thousand people go homeless because of a storm.

Constant foreign war is a carte blanche for our government to neglect the domestic situation, the health and shelter of its people.