An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.

The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq' has been seized on by critics as evidence of growing ambivalence over that country.

This coincides with concern over the increasing cost of the war. More than $30 billion has been appropriated for the reconstruction. Initially, America's overseas aid agency, USaid, expected it to cost taxpayers no more than $1.7bn, but it is now asking the public if they want to contribute even more.

With Katrina and Rita, private funding for Iraq obviously takes a back seat. We "had" to destroy it, so shouldn't we rebuild it? Do we owe that to the Iraq.

That would make sense, but his administration's response to Katrina made him look like the guy whose uninsured million dollar house burned down because he decided to spend $20 on a movie rather than the fire extinguisher that could have saved the house, but sat in the lawn chair watching the fire and didn't even call 911 or go after the garden hose.