More than just New Orleans was blown away

I was net surfing tonight and came across this from the BBC, which cites world press response to the US response to Katrina.  It's not at all favorable.  Mostly they seem to think we can't handle ourselves and have fallen not just in our own opinion, but even further in theirs.

From Kenya:

"My first reaction when television images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans came through the channels was that the producers must be showing the wrong clip. The images, and even the disproportionately high number of visibly impoverished blacks among the refugees, could easily have been a re-enactment of a scene from the pigeonholed African continent. "

And Hong Kong wants to give us some tips, since we clearly seem to need them:

"Even if our money may not be needed, at the least we should be offering moral support. Our skills in dealing with storms may be useful to help Americans prevent other such tragedies. We should be offering this help rather than shrugging off what should be our humanitarian duty."

There's also an incredible list of countries donating money.  I wasn't impressed with Rice's somewhat condescending response: "it is very valuable for people for being able to give to each other and to be able to do so without a sense of means."  I don't know what she means, but then, I rarely do.  We're getting oil.  We're getting $100 million from Qatar.  How many Americans knew Qatar was a country?  I admit, I thought it was an airline, then remembered that was Quantas. 

We're getting more than just oil and money and geography lessons and tips on how to deal with/prevent storm crises.  We're getting hubris, and it's unquestionably a Meal Ready to Eat.  I think the fact that we only barely can grasp how much public face we have lost only makes it that much worse.

How did we get here?  And no, don't say Bush.  He's one guy.  We're a country full of people who should be smarter than this.  Really -- all of us, how did we get here?  More importantly, how the hell do we get out of here?