Canadian Forces On Standby To Help Hurricane Katrina Effort

[Chuckup]

The Canadian military is on standby to help the United States deal with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier announced Thursday.

"Whenever there is a need ... they have but to ask and we in the Canadian Forces will have it rolling or sailing or flying southward as quickly as possible," he told reporters in Ottawa.

http://www.sitepunch.com/hurricane_aid_090105_0023.php

[babylonsister]

1. BLIVET, lose your hubris, and ASK FOR HELP!!! nt

[kansasblue]

2. Our buddies to the north.

[Endangered Specie]

3. Hell, not only do we need your help...

we need yall to take us over! please!

[Maple]

4. Well so far

we're not even allowed across the border. This item is from Wed.

"On tonight's news, CTV (Canadian TV) said that support was offered from Canada. Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called "DART" which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina. So, everything here is grounded. Prime Minister Paul Martin is reportedly trying to speak to President Bush tonight or tomorrow to ask him why the U.S. federal government will not allow aid from Canada into Louisiana and Mississippi. That said, the Canadian Red Cross is reportedly allowed into the area.

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of "mass confusion" at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/31/235829/261

So the only way we could do it is to fight our way in...and I doubt you need a shooting war on your border right now. :7

[shrike]

8. Hate to say this

But I personally wouldn't mind it.

Besides, the state our military is in, you'd probably win.

Hey -- I like that! You can liberate us! I'll surrender. I promise.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Thank god there is still a civilization in North America.

[Voltaire99]

6. Welcome Canadian Liberation Forces!

Don't merely stop in the south; please drive on to Washington, DC. Rescue is needed there, too. ;-)

[sonicx]

7. Canadian Forces prepare provisions (STILL no ok from *ush)

OTTAWA -- The Canadian Forces are putting together a shipload of goods that will be ready to sail down south if the U.S. military needs help to deal with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, General Rick Hillier said yesterday.

snip

To that end, Gen. Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, said the ship will be carrying generators, water-purification equipment, other emergency resources and a helicopter, and that it will be ready to go to the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. authorities have been briefed on the Canadian offer, but have yet to state whether they need help.

"We're prepared to sail a ship at first opportunity with as much of that kind of package as we could put on it to be able to bring as much assistance as we could. Again, if we are requested to provide it," Gen. Hillier said.

We're not going to sit around and have a request come in and then say, 'Oh, we'll need four or five more days to get it ready.' "

snip

"We just need to make sure that our American friends realize that we're their friends also," he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050902/STORMCANADA/TPInternational/Americas

Thanks Canada.

[Parkerfur]

9. SUCK UP YOUR LOSER PRIDE

Why can't Bush just ask them for the help we need... Since he can't provide it maybe someone else can.... these people need help and I don't care how they get it from whom... he needs to suck up his pride and said, yes Canada, we need your help, we can't do this alone !

[habitual]

10. umm ok thanx, and we'll call you if we need it!

no, no. we're ok. we'll be just fine. don't mind us, just a little disaster compounded by more disaster.

[Parkerfur]

11. This is how he handles everything !!

Bush really likes to try to handle things himself or pretend to anyways, they only thing he is handling is screwing up this country... in more ways than one !

[iverglas]

12. too fucking late

I mean, it's better late than never and all that, but for some people it's just plain too late.

I've been musing in other threads about how we up here should really have just put the planes in the air and said "shoot 'em down or tell us where to put 'em - your choice". Just like if my neighbour was starving his/her kids, I'd show up at the door with food and say "knock me unconscious or show me where the kids are, your choice". Actually, I'd bust the door down and knock the neighbour unconscious ...

The very least we should have done is say "what the fuck is wrong with you?? here's the help -- TAKE IT NOW".

That's almost what Gen. Hillier is saying now:

"We're not going to sit around and have a request come in and then say, 'Oh, we'll need four or five more days to get it ready.'"
<LIKE YOU'VE DONE, YOU EVIL MORONS>
"We just need to make sure that our American friends realize that we're their friends also," he said.
<YOU EVIL MORONS WHO ARE STOPPING US FROM HELPING THEM>

Too late? But how were we to know that the neighbour was actually going to starve the kids?

International law doesn't apply to protect governments who are killing their own people, any more than ordinary laws apply to protect parents who are killing their children. (Or than ordinary laws apply to punish people who "loot" for food or medicine.)

The defence is NECESSITY.

Someone who shot a person looting for food or medicine that s/he needed to survive would be the guilty party.

And the same would apply to a government that stopped aid to its own people whom it was allowing to die.

Unfortunately, we might lose that shooting war if we just sent the planes over the border. But even if we did it and weren't actually shot down, that being a bit of a far-fetched idea (or so I would have thought a week ago ...), we can't actually just start dropping things on New Orleans from 10,000 feet ...

[Akoto]

13. Let them in, for God sake.

How can we possibly be turning away help at a time like this? Day after day, Canada becomes a more attractive place to live.

[iverglas]

14. CTV poll re: sending Canadian troops to rescue Canadians

http://www.ctv.ca

Should the United States allow Canada to send its own troops into the hurricane zone to rescue stranded Canadians?

Yes 1398 votes (79 %)
No 379 votes (21 %)

(Hey, we have idiots and right-wingers too)


That may seem a little self-interested, but two points:

I voted yes just because I think we should get Cdn troops in there by whatever subterfuge is necessary. Then they can rescue anybody they like.

This is a point not being noticed much: there are indeed foreign nationals in the hurricane zone who are being denied assistance by the govt of the US, and those people's govts have a responsibility to them -- and the US govt ought not to be interfering in their efforts to meet that responsibility if it isn't goint to act on its own responsibilities.

[iverglas]

16. the story - Canadians in New Orleans

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1125665061361_92/?hub=TopStories

Three Toronto-area women are making an impassioned plea for the Canadian government to bring their mothers back from the flood-ravaged streets of New Orleans, a city quickly deteriorating into chaos.

... They are among more than 90 Canadians who are marooned in the region, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dan McTeague told CTV.ca on Friday.

While McTeague says the government is aware of the dire situation, he adds that Ottawa is working within the parameters of the massive disaster relief effort.

When asked why the Canadian government wouldn't send in officials to pluck out its citizens, McTeague said: "The difficulty is that we are not in a position to say, 'We have Canadians, excuse us, while you look after your own mess.'"

... Mary Iurato fears her mother (Coppa), who is epileptic, will go into a seizure soon. Her last batch of medication will end on Friday night.

The last time Christine Morra heard her mother's voice (LoBianco) was on a voicemail message, telling her that they were "in dire need of help, and if somebody didn't get to them soon, they would die."

The update is that the three women are being evacuated, they don't know to where, but there is no word on the other Canadians there.

[TrogL]

15. They've been sitting there for three days

waiting for Dubya to get over his "rugged individualism" kick.

[sonicx]

18. It's insane. Several nations have aid ready to come RIGHT NOW

And they can't send it because Bush wants to have the biggest dick.

[iverglas]

17. My E-mail to One Canadian Member of Parliament

... so far ... I can't think of much else to do ...

Forgive me if I'm not up to date with this request ...

Could Canadian parliamentarians be making direct appeals to their US counterparts to demand that the US government LET US IN ?

One phone call from every MP to every member of Congress, asking him/her to publicly call for the President to accept Canada's offers of aid and make immediate arrangements on the ground for our personnel and materiel to be integrated into the distribution and evacuation and rescue efforts ...

List of MPs' email addresses, in case anybody else wants to do equally not much -- or something better, if you have any suggestions.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/senmemb/house/members/CurrentMemberList.asp?Language=E&Parl=38&Ses=1&Sect=hoccur&Order=PersonOfficial

People in the US should feel free to use the list too -- it includes

Prime Minister Paul Martin
Leader of the New Democratic Party Jack Layton
Leader of the Official Opposition / Conservative Party Stephen Harper
Leader of the Bloc Québécois Gilles Duceppe

Click on a name to get the email address.