This is from the
Army Times. My apologies if it has been diaried already.
NEW ORLEANS -- 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."
Unbelievable. Somalia? . This is it. The meme the administration will push this week. The swifboating of the victims that Bush tried to start on GMA with his "zero tolerance" before the shit really hit the fan.
More ...
It gets worse:
While some fight the insurgency in the city, others carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.
Insurgency? What?!?! Look, I'm sure there is a bad element down there. Are people shooting at the troops? Maybe. But like Michael Eric Dyson said on Bill Maher this week: there were thugs before the hurricane and they are thugs after the hurricane. The majority of people are DYING not fighting.
And finally, the paragraph that made me re-read the article to make sure it wasn't about Iraq:
Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he knows there are plenty of decent people in New Orleans, but he said it is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.
"This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting." Ferguson said. "You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn't come here to fight a war. We came here to help."
This is sickening and I fear it is what we are in for next week. We have to fight back - hard. The victims of NOLA are not the enemy. They are not refugees. They are Americans. Americans that the government failed (long before Katrina, by the way.)
Don't let them away with this.