Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php

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.

[seemslikeadream]

1. Army Times: "Troops begin COMBAT operations in New Orleans"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4605494

The army is now calling it an "insurgency"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4606046

[bemildred]

5. Reluctantly, I'm starting to think you are onto something. nt

[icymist]

11. Insurgency?!!!

Hey! These fuckers don't want an AMERICAN insurgency!!! Just wait until the NO troops come back from Iraq and see what this administration has done to their families!?! God help us! And FUCK YOU PAT ROBERTSON!!!!


~ breathe ~ there i feel better now.

Edit for spelling. I had some tea. I feel much better now.

[sakabatou]

40. Reminds me of the song "Freedonia's Going to War"

[Starbucks Anarchist]

58. Hail, Hail Freedonia...

[Julius Civitatus]

2. Is this satire? WTF???

It seems very inappropriate language to use in this situation.

[niceypoo]

4. All "insurgents" caught "stealing" food and water will be executed

on orders of der chimpenfuhrer

[LivingInTheBubble]

30. It is the logical progression.

war on drugs..
war on terror...
war on water.....

They are going to shoot that water out of there and shoot those buildings back together!

Sometimes I feel the American regimes attitude to solving any problem is to throw agressive force at it.

[Tight_rope]

61. "ometimes I feel the American regimes attitude to solving any problem

is to throw agressive force at it."

Well, there's no doubt about that. This administration is like a big school "Bully". And you know what eventually happens to bullies. Eventually they pick on the wrong person and end up getting their ass kicked.

[mitchum]

3. And so it begins...

[bluestateguy]

6. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was a headline from 1815

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_new_orleans

[Iowa]

7. The incompetence is staggering...

I hope I'm asleep, in the middle of a bad dream, and will wake up soon to find myself in the 1990s.

[Eloriel]

27. NOT INCOMPETENCE -- read this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4588088&mesg_id=4588088

[Iowa]

33. Thanks! I had not seen that thread...

[amandabeech]

8. So now we know why there are no more buses arriving at the Superdome.

The area is being converted to a military staging area. Undoubtedly, the civilian buses would get in the way, clogging up the ingress/egress route. And I think that is route singular.

Good grief, I pity those poor people in that dome and at the convention center.

Obviously, this is why all other relief is being kept out. New Orleans is to become a combat zone. This is starting to sound like the Detroit riots, which happened in my home state in 1967. After the riots, white flight began in earnest and many, many black families were right there with them. I'd hate to see New Orleans follow the cycle of decline seen in Detroit.

[rodeodance]

10. when bush said WED that we need to secure the area--i knew this

was to come.

[Eloriel]

24. Except the people aren't cooperating very well -- they refuse to riot

Oh, yeah, there's some lawlessness, there's some needless looting, but again and again the reporters on cable news are pointing out how ORDERLY, how docile, how NOT unruly the people at the convention center and super dome are. EVEN WHEN THEY STOOPED EVACUATING, the remaining 2000 or so people just sat down.

They just aren't cooperating.

[nofurylike]

41. exactly!! eom

[rodeodance]

42. rumors plus "security' mentality--both are dangerous.

[Coventina]

9. I am sickened. This is a betrayal of ALL America

But once again, it will be enacted upon the bodies of African Americans.

What century is this again?

[catnhatnh]

12. Kick....N/T

[struggle4progress]

13. Nominated.

"I was hungry and thirsty, and you brought troops with machine guns."

[jimshoes]

14. So now we'll get to see

what they have in store for the rest of us eventually. This should be telling. P.S.

[Sgent]

15. Just don't tell me

that General Grant is leading the forces....


On a serious note, if you've seen the video from CNN of the overnight faced by the police, its not looting. Gunfights in the street where people are attacking the station, etc.

[The Wielding Truth]

63. What about the fellow that at his sick wifes bedside said

he had to keep going even though he saw a woman being raped?I saw him on I think abc last night. Any one else see him?

[tom_paine]

64. Not Grant, for the Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Jeff Davis

I believe the ghost of Robert E. Lee is leading the Sturmtruppen.

Actually, by all accounts Lee was a Man of Integrity and Decency, which means he would most certainly NOT be a a Bushevik.

Maybe the Ghost of Rommel, that would be a more appropriate leader of a Bushevik Assault Force.

[maddezmom]

16. why are they using such inflammatory language?

Combat operation?? How about rescue?
I'm so frightened for the folks left in the city.

[Eloriel]

28. So they can delcare martial law and SHOOT them

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4588088&mesg_id=4588088

[mom cat]

17. This macho chest beating is making me sick!

[ima_sinnic]

18. WTF??? comes in on Friday just before 3-day weekend, after

first propagandizing that the "looting and shooting" is so bad that the NG itself can't even deliver water to people, now sends troops into our own American city in "combat" mode?

er, are any Congresspeople available this weekend? Is there any way to stop this madman? Or are We The People just going to let him turn New Orleans into New Bagdhad as he begins to openly reveal what it's REALLY all been about?

[Milspec]

19. "Armytimes"....

is not affiliated with the US army at all. Its run by the same group that has Air force time Navy times etc...

[Occulus]

32. It still shows the mentality at work. n/t

[Milspec]

36. I'll buy that

the site(s) are one step above the "Soldier of Fortune" type sites.

[Minstrel Boy]

47. It's a Brigadier General talking!

"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...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. “This place is going to look like Little Somalia"??? What kind of crap...

...is this?

"This will be a combat operation to get this city under control"??

WTF???

[liberaliraqvet26]

21. this article looks exaggerated...

I saw the army general in charge actually yelling at NO police to drop their weapons from the ready position, it looks like the civil issues have died down

[jus_the_facts]

35. they've calmed down alright...homeland security in on the case....

:sarcasm:

[recycledindi]

46. more like

[Andrushka]

53. ha ha ha!

Took a couple of views, but that rocks! Nicely done, recycledindi!

[leesa]

22. They are going to start shooting these poor bastards. God, I hate

this Republican dictatorship. Their only answer to any problem is to shoot and kill. What cowards!

[expatriot]

23. Is Bush trying to instigate the supremacist's proverbial "race war" nt

WTF? This is bullshit, motherfucking bullshit. If this operation drags on and faces resistance while old ladies and children are dying in the streets of thirst (not to mention collateral damage), there will be anger like no anger this country's seen since after MLK got shot. He is tring to divide us with the ultimate divide.

[Joe Chi Minh]

25. Those troops would do well to remember

that what goes round, comes round. If their next tour of duty is Iraq, maybe they'll get payback for any bad treatment they mete out to the victims of right-wing wickedness in New Orleans. With interest. And a Hell of a time in the next life.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

26. Fuck you, General Gary Jones

Fuck you and the fucking horse you think you rode in on.

You are not there to FIGHT with American citizens.

You are there to HELP them.

You work for US, the American citizenry.

You, sir, are the reason I sometimes think the Khmer Rouge had the right idea about summary execution.

Fuck you, Gary.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

29. BS per NYT: New Orleans Quiets With Guard on Patrol and Offering Aid

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN 12:33 PM ET
The president acknowledged again today that his administration had failed to promptly help many of the hurricane's most desperate victims.

http://nytimes.com/

If this had happened within a reasonable time frame, much of the looting, criminal activity and human misery would have been prevented before it started. It was not until Thursday that the idiot did his job, too late for many victims of unnecessary disorder and lawlessness. If the idiot had a modicum of shame he would immediately resign but it would have to be coupled with the disappeared Darth Vader resigning too. These two are show up in Southern poker games frequently, known as a pair of asses.

[Strelnikov_]

31. "Up-Armored Humvee's"

So do the few gangs of marauding drug addicts and bangers now have RPG's?

On Edit: Classic example of the military saying that they always try to fight the last war. They are applying Iraq tactics against a few gangs of rioters. Providing armed guardsmen for protection with each relief convoy/operation would be adequate. Do they think the bangers are going to set off IED's and Muj type ambushes (take out the first and last truck blocking escape, then pick off the rest)?

[KeepItReal]

54. Well said

<eom>

[damntexdem]

34. Yeah, first you let the unrest and looting get out of hand.

Then you bring in a military combat response.

See, the Bushistas DID learn from the invasion of Iraq!

[Gregorian]

37. Do they have a name for it yet?

Shock and Awe is already taken.

[Gregorian]

38. Operation Freedom Gras?

[ninkasi]

39. Incredible

The federal government has kept out the Red Cross, and turned away many other organizations which were self sustaining, and offering to help. They have let people die, refused all offers of aid, and bumbled badly. NOW...after days of starvation, thirst, lack of sanitation, medicine, relief from the heat, now, they send in the ARMED TROOPS, and treat the victims like enemies.

The Bush administration is beyond corrupt and inept; it is criminal, and to use one of the Crawford Coward's favorite word, evil. Evil beyond comprehension, and a far greater threat than Osama, Saddam, and others combined. This is America's shame, that he still squats in the White House.

[rodeodance]

43. recommended

[rodeodance]

44. we do know that the Pentagon is in charge.

see DU posts elsewhere.

[DS1]

45. Someone here on DU posted a 'first hand account' of how NO had turned

into Liberia, with heavily armed drugged out people shooting anything that moved.

Now we're all so fucking surprised and shocked to hear when troops are sent in.

:eyes:

More fucking :eyes:

and even a bit more :eyes:

[NNN0LHI]

50. Was it a new poster by any chance?

And did the poster end that report with "God Bless George Bush"?

Don

[Lone_Star_Dem]

52. Was it this poster by any chance?

:D

[mogster]

48. Are they crazy??

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” :wow: :spank:

"Insurgency"?? Combat?

So, what do the guys on the ground think about shooting on fellow Americans?

[lala_rawraw]

49. Fuck this... where are the able men here?

[mogster]

51. Or the able women?

There seems to be a lot of both ;-)

Bush is mad. He wants a home war. This rethoric isn't unintentional, and if 'little Somalia' is the objective for the 'combat operations', this is gonna be ugly.

Brig. Gen. Gary Jones should be forced to retract these statements IMHO, and possibly be replaced with somebody who understand the nature of whats going on.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

55. What happened to the other general?

The "Ragin' Cajun?" Sorry, don't remember his name. Seemed a straight up guy, telling the troops (and others) to put their guns down and help people. The PNACers want something to go down here and they are getting desparate.

[prodigal_green]

59. Forget it, he'll get a promotion

[Demoiselle]

56. What happened to General Honore!!!???

He was ordering soldiers and cops to lower and/or shoulder their weapons this morning. His response to a reporter's question about "crime and lawlessness" was that "Crime happens all over the country everyday...these are mostly families just trying to find safety." WTF!???

[NNN0LHI]

57. The cigar-chomping general who thought he is Patton was sent back to...

...central casting to wait for his next role.

Don

[Demoiselle]

60. My question was serious. He appeared to be doing a good job....

...and I had CNN on most of the day and heard no reports of shootings. Can anybody answer my question? Is Honore gone or has Bush put in an asshole (General Jones) to balance the pretty decent humanitarian image of General Honore? (To please his knuckle dragger base.)

[NNN0LHI]

65. I am sorry. I didn't realize you thought that show was real

And that Barbara Starr just happened to be strolling by and happened to see it as it happened. I personally don't believe it was real.

Don

[hollowdweller]

62. wonder how many folks will get smoked at the checkpoints?

Maybe it's a plan to save money on rebuilding. If they knock off about a third of the population it will cost less.