Where are the helicopters?

[trof]

Two and one half days, 60 hours, since Katrina cleared out of New Orleans, I'm sitting here watching people still on rooftops, still on elevated sections of I-10, still around the SuperDome, with no food, water, or shelter of any kind. Men and women, black and white, and the babies. My god, the babies.

Why isn't the sky black with helicopters, bringing in life saving supplies? At least putting cases of pure water on rooftops and highways?

Well, a lot of them are in Iraq.
I did a google search, but to no avail.
So...I don't know exactly how many are in Iraq, but I'd guess it's in the hundreds, maybe thousands.

I can only wonder how many lives could have been saved if those helicopters, many of them from national guard units, were over here right now.

I can only wonder what would be happening now if Bush* hadn't decided "F*ck, Saddam, we're taking him out."?
If he hadn't decided that 9/11 was a "good enough" excuse to invade a country that posed no threat to us?

And I wonder why the MSM isn't reporting the massive funding cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers and their program for strengthening and elevating the levees. Funding cuts brought about by the "war" and tax "relief".

We don't need tax relief.
We need disaster relief.
:grr:

[bahrbearian]

1. They are getting shot at ,( in Iraq)

[Squatch]

6. *And* in NOLA

[bahrbearian]

9. The military suspended flights in NOLA, because of that,

so why not Iraq?

[mnhtnbb]

2. We need Bush relief

The LA National Guard has major equipment in Iraq and wanted it home when it became apparent we were in for a tough hurricane season.
Note the date on this article.

http://abc26.trb.com/news/natguard08012005,0,7101775,print.story?coll=wgno-news-1

[Alpharetta]

3. scanners indicate shots fired, maybe at the choppers

maybe they were just trying to get the choppers' attention, but for whatever reason, choppers don't like hearing gunshots.

So I want to know where is the Army Engineers who can put in temporary floating bridges anywhere fast during an invasion? They ought to be able to roll to the Superdome in about an hour but it's been 2 or 3 days.

[Guckert]

4. At least send in a plane pulling a banner with instructions on where to go

even i can think of that

"head north on I75" or "I35 is open, head north for HELP" Or "naval base is open and evacuating etc..."
or something like that.. these people in charge make me sick.

[dogday]

5. All 2 of them are up and running

I swear it does seem like only two teams are helping...

[puddycat]

7. they should have been dropping supplies from day one!

its disgusting.

[expatriot]

8. I can tell you where 20 fucking Chinooks are! Here in Yuma

Unless they left for NO last night they are still there. Could you imagine being a Marine Chinook pilot or crew watching this shortage of choppers on tv? FUCK BUSH!

According to Wikipedia, there are 1,000,000+ active duty military stationed stateside. Even if there were 500,000... why do we have so many troops deployed stateside if not for situations like this?!?

[trof]

10. it's beginning to have all the appearances of a clusterf*ck.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. I heard they were expecting 50 military and 20 private ones

This was on the scanner this morning. I've never heard more about it. Has anyone else?

It seems to me the only thing worse than doing nothing is promising and getting peoples hopes up then not delivering.