It seems that at least one official within the National Guard seems to believe the answer to this question is yes, as Robert Burns reports for The Washington Post.

The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered those states' initial storm response, military and civilian officials said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "arguably" a day at most of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq.

"Had that brigade been at home and not in Iraq, their expertise and capabilities could have been brought to bear," said Blum.

Blum said that to replace those units' command and control equipment, he dispatched personnel from Guard division headquarters from Kansas and Minnesota shortly after the storm struck.

I am truly in no position to either affirm or negate Blum's assessment of the situation on the ground, though I would be interested to hear how the President -- who prides himself on listening to the military brass -- would respond to this particular Lieutenant General.