Whether President Bush wanted to or not, there is NOW WAY the Secret Service would have allowed him into New Orleans. No security, too much of a chance for something to go wrong.

The CH-47 chinook (largest chopper in inventory in the US) holds a combat platoon of 32 infantry and their gear, which would equate to about 50 civilians on board, max. To get the estimated 100K people out of NO, that would take 2000 flights by those aircraft, which would take weeks given the maintenance requirements for those aircraft.

Yes, we help other countries. Most of the time we send either cash or pre-positioned military equipment with troops to help out. the cash gets there within hours, the troops within a week or so. The ones you see on the news arriving 48 hours after the disaster are normally the command and control element coming in, preparing for the main body, which arrives 2-4 days later.