Too many too late? Bush's 30,000 troops are "securing" empty streets

[BurtWorm]

Where were they last week? :grr:


http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002566.html

NBC's Brian Williams offers a new dispatch clarifying a bit his observations from yesterday:

...Yesterday's post continues to draw attention, links and comment. I just spoke with Howie Kurtz of the Washington Post who is apparently writing on same for tomorrow. What I said to him and what I will repeat today is this: it can be said absent slant, ideology or opinion that the security presence in much of central New Orleans is in response to lawlessness that no longer exists. I can tell you that last Wednesday evening on Canal Street in New Orleans, we asked members of the Federal Protective Service to "cover" our location... as we found ourselves necessarily bathed in television lights (the only light for blocks in that part of the city) for a live, hour-long "Dateline" broadcast. I can tell you that on that very same day, the situation in the French Quarter was so dire (and fears of smash-and-grab carjackers so prevalent) that troopers with the Louisiana State Police offered to "cover" us, with muzzles pointed at people standing in waist-deep water in the street, as we pulled out of a hotel in a rental SUV with three passengers... and flood water coming up and over the hood <...>

Yesterday afternoon, I watched a column of troopers from the 82nd Airborne march down Bourbon Street, which was empty... save for the occasional hotel worker hosing down the sidewalk. We saw a total of three pedestrians in the Quarter, and interviewed two of them....

What he's saying very carefully is that the current armed security presence in an almost deserted New Orleans is ridiculous overkill -- too much, too late. (And the Pentagon told me tonight another 30,000 troops are headed into the Gulf coast over the next 24-48 hours, to join the "65,410" active duty and National Guard troops already there.) Sounds like somebody got the message.

[sandnsea]

1. While Biloxi STILL waits for FEMA

"As the Gulf Coast creeps back to life, some residents who remain in this city's ravaged eastern peninsula dwell in post-Katrina squalor, sleeping in molding, sludge-coated houses, digging holes for toilets and waiting for help."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/20050908/ts_krwashbureau/_wea_katrina_squalor_1

[txindy]

6. At least their governor(R) is pleased with FEMA's response

:crazy:

[snot]

2. I'm starting to wonder if there's a connection betw

being Repub and being too rigid to react appropriately to realities. How much money are we now wasting to fill N.O. with troops?

[kath]

3. Why the fokkity -fok haven't the thousands of troops been used to

rescue people trapped in attics and buildings??????

[lindisfarne]

4. If each National Guardsperson saved one or two animals there'd be a lot of

happy people who have lost so much. Not to mention we'd manage to save all the estimated 50,000 animals in NO

On this topic: they really need help at the shelters where animals are being housed - Baton Rouge, Gonzales, LA, Jackson, MS, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, etc. If you're in the area, within 2 hours or so, consider driving to one of the Louisiana or Mississippi shelters.
There are some shelters in Louisiana which could really use volunteers; some info at:
www.vetmed.lsu.edu www.muttshack.org www.hsus.org

[newyawker99]

5. Hi lindisfarne!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Crankie Avalon]

7. They're not too late; they're just in time to do their real job...

...pointing guns at the heads of media people to make sure they don't record all the dead bodies, which might lead to folks getting even angrier at the regime. Can't have THAT.

"Securing" the streets, indeed.