Disgraceful. Disgusting. Uncaring. Racist. Welcome to America.

And that's just the beginning. Last week before the hurricane struck, I thought that the only people left behind in New Oreleans were those idiotic enough to believe they could outride mother natures fury - not so. Also left behind were the poor, the frail, the sick. Many had no way of fleeing the city but America didn't give a damn about them. And not just them. On the eve of the hurricane police visited the hotels and offered to evacuate all the residents, all that is except for foreigners. To the disbelief of British nationals the police abandoned them and other foreigners to fend for themselves - they would evacuate only Americans. If they died so what? They're not Americans. And abandoned they were for five days, trapped in the hotel with no water and no food. There was a payphone that by some miracle was still operating, but the operators refused to make collect calls even when the tourists explained the situation. Go fuck yourself. That's the message that the officials and the people of America gave to the guests in their so called country.

Poor? Tough, go fuck yourself. Sick, go fuck yourself. A tourist? Go fuck yourself.

And beyond this callous disregard for fellow humans, outrage is expressed over the shooting of National Guard members,

'I never thought that as a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans - and I never thought I'd have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. It's a disgrace' said a Spc Philip Bacus 527th Engineer battalion. Disgrace? Exactly. And what was one of the main priorities? To stop looting or to protect property. What did they expect people to do? After being abandoned to fend for themselves, outrage over those that survived doing precisely that. So what if someone poor helps themselves to some jewelry, what have they got left? Is the government going to look after them? Others are looting simply to survive, I would have done the same thing.

The National Guard could not get there in sufficient numbers quickly enough, why? Because 30% of the NG is serving in Iraq. Police abandoned their posts and melted away, at least 200 police just threw away their badges and fled, another disgrace. And what does the superintendent of police say?

'I wouldn't be too happy either...my officers are walking around in wet shoes' - oh the hardship!

And what about those at the very top? While Rice was out buying $7,000 shoes in New York, Cheney and Bush were on holiday - heaven prevent their routine being interrupted as one of the most ferocious storms ever hit the Southern coast. When Bush did drag himself away from his cosy fireside he said to ABC's Diane Sawyer 'I don't think anyone anticipated a breach of the levees'. What planet is he on? This must be the most widely anticipated American disaster in history. Even as he slashed funding for flood prevention by 80% and work on strengthening the levees was stopped for the first time in 37 years. The buck should stop with Bush but it won't.

In a country as rich as America, why are 25% of its children raised in poverty? Why is the level of education so low that for many the only way out of the ghetto is to enlist and fight pointless wars while the rich kids play Nintendo. Why do 50 million Americans have no health insurance?

As headlines such as 'Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans' roll we see what's really going on here - America is a country at war with itself, the haves and the have nots so cruelly exposed in this disaster exacerbated by slashing environmental budgets and giving the money to the rich in tax cuts.

And as the world looks on shocked that this could happen in America, there is of course the intrinsic message that all Britons must now heed with our special friends across the Atlantic. If you're in trouble, go fuck yourself, for such is the new American hospitality.

yechydda,