Iraq war blamed for Kat
BY CORKY SIEMASZKO DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
God is said to work in mysterious ways, but New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has divined that Hurricane Katrina and other devastating storms last year were signs that the Almighty "is mad at America" for invading Iraq.
"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses," Nagin said yesterday at a ceremony marking Martin Luther King Day.
Nagin also said the storms were a sign that God was "upset at black America" and promised that New Orleans would be "chocolate" again.
"We're not taking care of ourselves," said Nagin, who is black. "It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. "
A Republican who switched to the Democratic Party days before entering the race for New Orleans mayor in 2002, Nagin invoked the Almighty when Katrina was ravaging his city. Weeping, Nagin ripped President Bush for botching federal rescue efforts and warned, "You know God is looking down on all this."
Nagin's voice was also one of the loudest in the chorus condemning evangelist Franklin Graham for saying that God was using Katrina to spark a religious revival in a city rife with "Satanic worship" and "sexual perversion."