Hurricane Katrina has given European public opinion an excuse to indulge in the most distasteful exhibition of schadenfreude at America’s expense that I can ever recall. Once the full extent of the calamity that had befallen New Orleans became clear last week, Europe’s professional anti-Americans fell over themselves to exploit an unprecedented opportunity to crow. They were echoing similar sentiments being voiced in America. Criticism of the president is of course legitimate, but some of the critics (such as a particularly vociferous Democratic senator of Louisiana or, indeed, the mayor of New Orleans himself) appear to bear a considerable share of responsibility themselves, and thus are hardly disinterested.