Angry in the Great White North, a conservative Canadian blog, raises an interesting possibility: What might terrorists learn from Hurricane Katrina?

He puts forward the possibility that instead of another sudden, unexpected catastrophe like 9/11, terrorists might learn from this catastrophe to engineer attacks that include an element of anticipation -- using the credible threat of a massive attack of some sort to ratchet up fear and tension for days ahead of actually carrying out the threat. By this means, terrorists could impart the corrosive panic, chaos and lawlessness we are seeing in New Orleans today, rather than bring the citizenry together as happened following 9/11.

Which is possible, but unlikely given the logistics involved in pulling off such a thing. But on the bright side, what might emerge from our experience with Hurricane Katrina is the means to address and recover from a mass casualty attack, should one eventually occur.

It's one thing to have contingency plans in place for terrorist attacks, and to rehearse and refine these plans with drills and the like. But until the real thing happens, it's unlikely that those doing the planning will have a full appreciation of what they are up against, or will think of all of the significant facets of such a crisis. The response to Katrina will hardly be held up as a model for the future, but that's the point -- the failures that will later be identified will teach us how to better respond to such events. Instead of being paralyzed with terror, we will have a point of reference on which to base our actions...lessons learned about what to do and what not to do.