COMBAT OPERATIONS in New Orleans !
By Joseph R. Chenelly | 03.09.2005 18:53
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.”
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 operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.
Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and police helicopters filled the city sky Friday morning. Most had armed soldiers manning the doors. According to Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeremy Grishamn, a spokesman for the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the vessel kept its helicopters at sea Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.
Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any servicemen being wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome Wednesday night.
“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.”
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.”
www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php
By Joseph R. Chenelly
Comments
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Fascist fuck
03.09.2005 23:32
They are now openly, as the first post shows, declaring war - literally declaring war - on the New Orleans survivors who they have held in there on a policy of containment, from the beginning sending in armed troops to shoot looters instead of aid to help people and buses and boats to get people out.
They are turning it into a civil war in there, and the racism that they're relying on justify this is perfectly represented by the last post.
The military are now describing New Orleans residents as "insurgents".
It is absolutely essential to give solidarity and help to the people in there by publicising the way the US military-state is dealing with this.
There is a real chance of riots in cities across America as black workers in particular realise more and more what is happening. If so, fascist little fucks like the above are going to try and turn it into a race war.
We need to stand unequivocally with the working class of New Orleans, black and white, who have been left to die, and now apparently to be ACTIVELY KILLED, by their government.
X
fuck off you lying racist bigot
04.09.2005 02:41
There were a very small number of people committing serious crimes against people as a proportion of the 200,000 affected. Most of the victims of crimes were black. The criminals were mostly males, and you are male, so I guess you must have been joining in!
Most of the people left behind in the city were black because they are poor and George Bush’s federal government did not bus them out in advance of the hurricane. They aren’t likely to fund the Republican Party. The vast majority of people in New Orleans behaved decently given the circumstances. I could not imagine British people of any ethnicity behaving that well or having their patience.
There were very few British people in New Orleans, and they were no different to the majority black people in the stadium, who were as vulnerable. And you're stupid because you assume the British people are white, because you're an ignorant poorly educated racist bigot.
George Bush didn’t send aid in time, the people waited for days, and many people died. You go for a day or more without any drink or food, I know you’re too weak to do it. With your attitude you’re as bad as the minority who assaulted people, assaulted mainly black people in the city. Or maybe you beat up ‘people of colour’ if they’re physically weaker than you, or maybe your cowardly racism is to discriminate against ‘people of colour’ because you are evil. You are a cowardly bully.
Days later aid began to arrive
SATURDAY 03/09/2005 09:31:09
Relief at last for New Orleans
Long awaited packages of food, water and medicines were finally reaching thousands of stranded hurricane victims in New Orleans today, hours after United States President George Bush admitted rescue efforts had been unacceptable.
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National Guard convoys packed with essential aid rolled through axle-deep floodwaters into what remained of the devastated city, which has descended into a maelstrom of fires and floating corpses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which struck on Saturday last week.
Thousands of people have lost relatives, some literally torn from their arms in the storm and Senator David Vitter has made a grim prediction that the death toll will top 10,000 in Louisiana alone.
"The cavalry is and will continue to arrive," said Lieutenant General Steven Blum, who confirmed that 7,000 guardsmen will be in place in the city today to help rescue efforts and restore order.
Soldiers delivered the aid to cries of "Thank you, Jesus!" and catcalls of "What took you so long? - a reference to the long delays that have left many of the stranded furious.
The convoys of lorries were arriving at the New Orleans Convention Centre, where up to 20,000 people huddled amid dead bodies, fires, human waste and violence, including reports of rapes.
President Bush had earlier promised the people of New Orleans that he would not forget the devastation he saw in an aerial tour of the ruined city on Friday.
"This is one of worst national disasters we have faced, with national consequences," he said.
"People are working around the clock, people are working hard and making good progress."
"I am not going to forget what I`ve seen."
He said that rescue efforts had been unacceptable, but promised that aid was now "surging" towards those stranded.
Confronted with criticism that too many resources were being deployed in Iraq, he said: "We`ll secure our country from the terrorists and we`ll help rebuild this part of the world. We have got what it takes to do more than one thing."
Bus convoys were also continuing to move into New Orleans today to carry those most in need away from the flooded streets.
One bus carrying evacuees to Dallas overturned en route, killing one man.
The New Orleans Superdome is being emptied of the last of 30,000 people who sought shelter there in squalid conditions, though 2,000 remaining evacuees have been told they must remain there until tomorrow.
Several Britons have been among those who have sought shelter in the stadium after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Guildford student Marisa Haigh, 23, and Mark Graydon, 26, of Essex, made calls home from the scene, with Mr Graydon telling his father he feared for his life in the face of constant abuse from violent gangs.
More than 10,000 people have so far been evacuated from the New Orleans, with an estimated 50,000 survivors still stranded on rooftops and in shelters.
The Houston Astrodome in Texas has been forced to temporarily close as it reached full capacity with 11,000 evacuees and two other major centres have been opened to cope with the influx.
Two oil storage tanks, damaged by Katrina, have spilled millions of barrels of oil into a marsh south of New Orleans and dramatic fires have erupted in industrial areas.
There are fears the flames could spread to the historic wooden neighbourhoods, causing further damage.
Doctors are estimated to be treating up to 800 patients an hour and four mobile mortuaries have been sent to the region to begin the grim task of identifying the bodies.
The Foreign Office said some of the group of "20 or so" Britons who had been sheltering at the Superdome have arrived in Dallas.
One British holidaymaker said her mother had been forced to join in the looting to find food.
Teresa Cherrie, 42, a nurse from Renfrew in Scotland, is stuck in the French quarter of Baton Rouge with her partner, John Drysdale, 41, a lorry driver.
Nicola Cherrie, 21, said they have been forced to scavenge and loot supermarkets for food while trying to hide from the gangs that roam the streets.
"She was awfully upset and she just said she`d never been so starving in her whole life, she`d never seen so many guns, she`d never been so scared."
Aid agencies racked up more than $200 million (£108 million) in donations and Congress approved a $10 billion (£5.4 billion) aid package which Mr Bush will sign later tonight.
People were left with no water, no food, no change of clothes and no home. But you are so evil you don’t care about the situation that the majority of people who are good were in. You should be focusing on the majority, and they were mainly black people, who behaved as decently as possible under the circumstances.
Supermarkets were the only place to get food for people trapped in the city. The British people were forced to ‘loot’ as well rather than starve to death.
Racist pig I can tell your problem is a small dick and sexual inadequacy.
Racist bigot, waste of space - stop wasting our time by putting your evil words here. YOU ARE EVIL AND IF THERE'S A HELL YOU'VE GOT A GUARANTEED PLACE. Do everyone a favour and go there now.
racist nezis you are a waste of space
wepons of crowd control will be used in new orleans:
04.09.2005 17:28
yanaja