Sir

Your Editorial “Small-minded government” (Nature 437, 169; 2005) accuses the US government of failing to “protect its most vulnerable citizens” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The United States has a federal government, which means that the responsibility for citizen protection, and for first response after the hurricane, lies with the local state and city governments of Louisiana and New Orleans. We are not a dictatorship in which the national government can override local authorities.

Furthermore, your comment that US leaders may be forced to confront the poverty that was a contributing factor to the crisis after Katrina is unfair. You assume that everyone, given the opportunity, would want to compete in the marketplace to gain a level of economic success measured by an abundance of material goods. There is a limit to what the national government can do — previous efforts have rarely been very successful. This country has drug, and similar, problems that primarily affect the poor, meaning they make poor choices that limit their own economic well-being. But President Bush and his administration have already done something to benefit all the people in this country, including the poor — he has spearheaded the reduction in taxes to stimulate the economy.

The opinion expressed in your Editorial shows a lack of understanding, a judgemental attitude, and a disregard for the elementary rule of good scientific inquiry. It leaves me with a strongly held belief that foreigners generally know very little about this country, and that what they do know is garnered primarily from leftist, élitist news media and fictional movies.