Who's to Blame?

For the disastrous coordination of relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina? The state and local governments for being unwilling to call up their state's National Guard units, for not doing enough on their own to fortify the levees? Or is it the Feds fault?

Two opposing viewpoints:

Josh Marshall
John Hinderaker

The ultimate responsibility for the coordination and prevention of disasters lies with our federal government. After all the federal government only institution capable on the strategic level of coordinating a multi-state relief, aid, and safety project. State and local planning obviously is crucial, but oftentimes the local institutions are overwhelmed by the situation and cannot be expected to manage such a crisis of this magnitude.