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Headlines : Civil LibertiesTroops begin combat operations in New Orleans
Rasputin is taking a break from the site and forwarded me this article from the Army Times. In his message, he wrote, “If I saw this in the Onion a month ago I would have laughed out loud.” It is almost too surreal.
[Posted By silverback]Republished from Army Times
Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”
Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.
“We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,” Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.”
While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation…
Posted by silverback
Co-founder of GNN. Music video and feature film director. Co-author of "True Lies." Director/shooter of "BattleGround." Arrested at the RNC shooting first narrative feature "This Revolution." New projects: A book, "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: The New...
I gotcher posse comitatus right heah….
Criticism of Bush mounts as more than 10,000 feared dead: Having spent their fourth day waiting to be rescued, the city fell deeper into chaos, with gangs roaming the city and corpses rotting in the sun.
fuck this —- they don’t have to be shooting back at them…...
.............do they????
“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,“
A little hidden racism for one and all.
Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?: Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
What bothers me is there seems to be a new (or anewed really) underlining attitude in the military which is highlighted in this article. “Us vs. Them” mentality when it comes to the military and the American public…It also highlights a couple of glaring issues..They are refering to this as a combat mission and are calling Americans Insurgents…I don’t like that rhetoric…This disaster is bringing allot of ugly things to light in this country today..Things we already knew and things we hoped weren’t true..
“This disaster is bringing allot of ugly things to light in this country today..”
I agree, it’s a disaster. Not to mention the disgraceful media coverage. Look at this:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ipodgirl/83462.html
“I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”
sums it up best for me… what the hell has become of us?
This shows how fragile social fabric can be and is. The speed at which regression occurs is a strong indicator of low confidence in institutions, weakness of overall social bonds and lack of distributed knowledge on how to join in for concerted efforts.
I agree with mikecimerian. From my dealings with Americans, I have found that they are the most individual-centric people on this planet. It’s not surprising to see this type of unravelling. People trust what they hear on their local news stations – because its coming out of their TV – and are unlikely to trust anyone who appears to represent a vantage point other than the one which they have ingrained. Pull the plug on the TV, and people just don’t know what to think.