President George W. Bush on Monday denied the government was slow to respond to Hurricane Katrina because most of the victims were black and also said it was ‘‘preposterous’’ to claim the Iraq war left insufficient troops to help with the disaster.Bush, whose job approval ratings have tumbled to the lowest of his presidency amid charges he was slow to respond to the hurricane, was on his third trip to the disaster zone.“The storm didn’t discriminate,” he said, “and neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast Guard choppers . were pulling people off roofs, they didn’t check the color of a person’s skin. They wanted to save lives.’’He also rejected criticism that the military was stretched too thin because of the war in Iraq. He said it was ‘‘preposterous’’ to claim that the Iraq war resulted in insufficient troops to help out with the hurricane. ‘‘We’ve got plenty of troops to do both,’’ he said during a tour of the areas of the city ravaged by the hurricane.Some US black leaders have accused the Bush administration of reacting too slowly in New Orleans because many of the victims were poor and black.‘‘We’ve got a lot of work to do, a whole lot of work to do,’’ said Bush, accompanied on his tour by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. —Reuters FEMA’s Brown quitsNEW ORLEANS: Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown resigned on Monday amid fierce criticism. Brown became a lightning rod for criticism after appearing unaware of the extent of the humanitarian disaster the hurricane left. His fate was sealed after it emerged that he had padded his resume, lacked real emergency relief experience and owed his job to political cronyism. —Reuters
