New Orleans: laboratory of counter-insurgency (WW4 Report)

[struggle4progress]

As looting and gunfire erupt in New Orleans, the authorities are shifting their attention from a humanitarian mission to what is starting to look like counter-insurgency. <snip>

The thousands of refugees at the Superdome are slowly being evacuated, but the Houston Astrodome is said to be already at maximum capacity. In any case, the refugees will likely be going merely from one de facto prison camp to another. From an LA Times account:

The Superdome is patrolled by more than 500 Louisiana National Guard troops, many of whom carry machine guns as sweaty, smelly people press against metal barricades that keep them from leaving, shouting as the soldiers pass by: "Hey! We need more water! We need help!" <snip>

All civilian search and rescue operations have been suspended following reports of attacks on rescue workers, including shots being fired at helicopters. (CNN, Sept. 1) There are reports of gun shops being looted, as well as luxury goods being plundered. But NPR's Burnett reported Sept. 1 that the only food and water which arrived at the convention center was brought by "looters." The overwhelming majority of the "looting" appears to be desperate residents doing what they have to to survive. The "looted" aid to the convention center indicates that at least some of the "looting" represents social solidarity rather than the social breakdown which is being portrayed. <snip>

http://www.ww4report.com/node/1038

[Kagemusha]

1. Then why do reports from normal people who escaped the city

describe a city sinking into anarchic hell?

I'm just wondering, because to me, first person accounts matter, rather than accounts based on a political theory of what we would like to believe.

[struggle4progress]

2. It's likely that after days without food or water people are desperate.

The real issue is what the reaction should be.

Unfortunately, we already know from history what the reaction likely to be: continued evacuation of the wealthy and protection of their property, with machine guns for the poor who understandably try to steal sandwiches and bottled water from abandoned stores ...

[Kagemusha]

3. Then why hasn't it happened yet.

For all the scare talk here, I keep looking at the clock. The looter massacres (and take your pick, looter or "looter") haven't materialized. Maybe the "combat troops" have an aversion to killing Americans after all? Maybe their commanders aren't bloodthirsty after all? You're all so convinced there'll be massacres but where's the reports of this?

And it's hard to formulate a reasonable reaction to something that obviously a lot of people are denying exists at all.

[struggle4progress]

4. ? What I described is happening: the rich are being evacuated, and ..

.. the starving poor are kept in line by troops armed with automatic weapons.

Your misrepresentations notwithstanding, I have not claimed combat troops are eager to kill Americans or that their commanders are blood-thirsty: I simply think that for the most part they will try to hold whatever line they are told to, regardless of the desperate condition of the crowds.

And instead of shipping in food and water and evacuating people, the Administration seems to be shipping in crowd control equipment. That's rather clearly a counter-insurgency focus, rather than a humanitarian focus ...

[The Traveler]

5. I know what the military can do

I expected the first significant relief presence to show up via air drop on the morning of day 3. Trucks in by late Weds or early Thurs. Offloading personnel and supplies and picking up the most critical of the wounded.

Trust me. We can do better. By now, we should have teams sweeping the smaller towns and relieving survivors.

This is the most incompetent collection of ass clowns I have ever seen. Our soldiers, sailors, and airmen can and WANT to do better.

[struggle4progress]

6. You're right. eom

[Eloriel]

7. THERE WAS NO FIRING AT CHOPPERS

QUOTE: Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, said she had no such report.

"We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on," she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft.


near the end of this article:

Evacuation Disrupted by Gunshot Report
Superdome Evacuation Disrupted by Report of Gunshot Fired at Military Helicopter; No Injuries Reported
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205

[struggle4progress]

8. The real problem seems to be "looters" value life above property

[beetbox]

9. A Great African American Community In The World Has Been Destroyed

"I assume the president's going to say he got bad intelligence... I think that wherever you see poverty, whether it's in the white rural community or the black urban community, you see that the resources have been sucked up into the war and tax cuts for the rich." -- Congressman Charles B. Rangel



It's fucking disgusting.