New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize

[Gruenemann]

Fascinating article lays out the vital importance of the port of New Orleans not only to the US but to the global economy. Excerpt:

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

Katrina has taken out the port -- not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem.

It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.

Entire article, well worth reading, is at:
http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php

[Gruenemann]

1. narcissistic kick

'cos y'all really need to read this sumbitch.

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. I have no doubt that the city was deliberately "cleared" of those annoying

poor Democrats who were taking up valuable space.

Recommended.

[watrwefitinfor]

3. I'm with you.

Voted & kicking. This article is vital for understanding the situation.

Wat

[MsTryska]

4. I love Stratfor.......

I had posted a report form them here last week i think.


don't anticipate much of a response! *lol* i posted the report re: THe positioning of the Dems post-katrina.

[Gruenemann]

6. I'll have to check Stratfor out...

I originally received this article from a friend who fled NOLA. It's been making the rounds at the law office where she works--fortunately they have a branch in her hometown of Lafayette, where she's moved in with her Cajun mama.

[MsTryska]

7. stratfor is really cool.....

I learned about it from the CIA guy who wrote Imperial Hubris - get on the mailing list for the free intel reports - they send one every couple of days or so - interesting stuff, and fairly well-balanced as well.

[dcfirefighter]

5. Mississippi River traffic overrated

Barge traffic is barely more efficient that rail traffic for the bulk goods generally shipped by barge, and less efficient for non-bulk goods.

This doesn't even count the billions we spend on maintaining navigible riverways, nor does it count the untold effect of the man-made channel carrying the silt out into the gulf, rather than depositing it in the Mississippi R. Delta.

Furthermore, the Mississippi R. has been trying to reroute south down the Atchafalaya R. for decades.

Modern ports, if they are competitive on a world scale, are heavily automated, with hundreds, not thousands of workers.

In short, New Orleans, at it's previous population, and use as a port, was unsustainable. Nature tends to correct these problems, as painful as that may be.