Reading three separate articles on the government response to the tragic tornado that hit Greensburg, Kan., last week it's hard to tell exactly where the truth is.

First, The New York Times promotes the standard Democrat take on the story: that the Kansas National Guard, overtaxed by deployments to Iraq, can't handle natural disasters at home.

For months, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and other governors have warned that their state National Guards are ill-prepared for the next local disaster, be it a tornado a flash flood or a terrorist’s threat, because of large deployments of their soldiers and equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then, last Friday night, a deadly tornado all but cleared the small town of Greensburg off the Kansas map. With 80 square blocks of the small farming town destroyed, Ms. Sebelius said her fears had come true: The emergency response was too slow, she said, and there was only one reason.

“As you travel around Greensburg, you’ll see that city and county trucks have been destroyed,” Ms. Sebelius, a Democrat, said Monday. “The National Guard is one of our first responders. They don’t have the equipment they need to come in, and it just makes it that much slower.”

But is that true or is it politics?

The Washington Post has a much shorter article on the issue, but it includes a quote that you'd think the Times would've found room for in their much longer article.

Sebelius's spokeswoman told reporters that the governor did not mean to imply that the state could not handle the storm recovery, saying: "We are doing absolutely fine right now."

And then there's this bit of information from a Fox News report:

Pentagon officials are disputing claims that the Iraq war has spread National Guardsmen too thin to respond to a Kansas tornado after the governor and some Democratic lawmakers complained that the Guard are not equipped to help displaced residents.

Kansas has 88 percent of its state Guard forces available, and 83,000 Guardsmen from neighboring states are also on the ready should the state request their assistance, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday, citing National Guard Bureau statistics.

According to Whitman, the Kansas Guard have available 352 Humvees, 94 cargo trucks, 72 dump trucks, 62 five-ton trucks, 13 medium-haul trucks and trailers and 152 2 1/2-ton trucks, a surplus, he noted.

Greensburg was completely wiped out, but it certainly puts the Democrat governor's claims in a different light when you have the actual numbers. It should be noted that Fox News' numbers don't quite jive with those in the Times story.

In Kansas, the National Guard is operating with 40 percent to 50 percent of its vehicles and heavy machinery, local Guard officials said. Ordinarily, the Guard would have about 660 Humvees and more than 30 large trucks to traverse difficult terrain and transport heavy equipment. When the tornado struck, the Guard had about 350 Humvees and 15 large trucks, said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state’s adjutant general. The Guard would also usually have 170 medium-scale tactical vehicles used to transport people and supplies — but now it has fewer than 30, he said. On the other hand, General Bunting said, it had more cargo trucks than it needed.

The numbers of Humvees appear to match up, but those on the available trucks are vastly different.

Which numbers are right? I have no idea. But the overall point is really moot. Remember, according to the governor's spokeswoman: "We are doing absolutely fine right now."