Is mindless patriotism killing Americans in New Orleans?

"Offers of Aid Immediate, but U.S. Approval Delayed for Days"
from the Washington Post 7 September 2005:

Offers of foreign aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships -- have been delayed for days awaiting review by backlogged federal agencies, according to European diplomats and information collected by the State Department.
Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts for the flood-stricken region, but nearly all endeavors remained mired yesterday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. [...]

I can understand the petrified Cold War brains of Cheney and Rumsfeld refusing to acknowledge Castro's offer of 1,100 Cuban physicians and hurricane experts, but why are they still blocking helpful Swedes and Germans and Canadians and Frenchmen and scores of others, a week and a half after the storm hit? Would they have delayed for one minute if any of these countries had volunteered in March 2003 to send men and military materiel as part of the "Coalition of the Willing® [to Destroy Iraq]"?? According to the Post article, fully-loaded planes have been sitting on runways around the world for four or five days, just waiting for an OK to deliver desperately-needed help.

This is a crime. This is not just bureaucratic red tape. This is not just the laziness of the vacationing junta. This is not just the incompetence of Bushy's beloved Brownie. This inability to accept outside help because of misguided macho nationalism or flag idolatry or mindless patriotism is murder.

You don't have to burn a flag, or spit on one,
but don't lend your hand to raise one above this ship of fools either,
unless it's light blue, with a white globe in its center
(you know, the flag John Bolton would burn),
True Blue Liberal