"LT... LT... we'll shoot those carrying Plasma TV's and Computers first... they can't eat that!"
Not questioning your source HAL but wondering about your source's source. If you can figure out what I mean.
I know i'm not the only one this scares the living hell out of.
But they have no choice and are not left with options !
I just hope these guys aren't hung out to dry when they shoot someone who turns out to be someone's dad, son, brother,etc, who was "just trying to get something for his family to eat". I can hear it now. These guardsmen won't have a military mindset backing them. They'll have a bleeding heart liberal looking for poll numbers.
I pray for them. Somehow, I think they would rather be doing this in Iraq for a whole number of reasons.
She has no understanding of the warrior mind...
Yes there are 300 Arkansas NG there now, that part is true.
I hope they got AC-130 Specter gunships orbiting and
armor this time..
Welcome to Mogadishu on the Mississppi boyze...
Hope they can rescue those poor souls trapped in the
Convention Center
The NG from LA were in Afghanistan they returned in Jan. They have been working from day 1.
I'm going to get flamed for this, but I hope this news report is not true. I can see the AR Guard working with local police to restore law and order and making arrest. If they have orders to shoot to kill, then the Governor becomes the first in modern memory to order our troops to open fire upon our own people. Such an order would be unforgivable and the governor should be immediately removed from office.
If she truly said that, I agree, she's retarded.
http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=050902015113.5lgwn2uc.php
Iraq-tested soldiers in New Orleans with shoot to kill orders
Africasia, Africa - 30 minutes ago
... in anarchic New Orleans on Thursday, with the authorization to shoot and kill ... Arkansas National Guard have landed in the city of New Orleans," said Blanco. ...
AFP 2005
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - New Orleans made a "desperate SOS" for help as authorities struggled to stem a descent into anarchy and evacuate survivors of Hurricane Katrina which is now believed to have killed thousands.
Some 4,000 National Guard troops fought an uphill battle to restore order to the largely submerged jazz mecca plagued by gunbattles, fistfights, gangs of roving thugs, looters and carjackers.
Residents reported survivors dropping dead in shelters or gunned down outside the local convention center. Hospitals were evacuated after power ran out and helicopters ferrying patients and babies drew gunfire.
"This is a war zone," said Melissa Murray, 32, a Louisiana state corrections officer helping in the relief effort.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued an urgent appeal for immediate help for up to 20,000 refugees stuck in the convention center in the heart of the stricken city.
"Currently, the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies," Nagin said in a statement issued via CNN. "This is a desperate SOS."
With survivors complaining bitterly over the lack of security and the slow pace of relief operations, officials said they expected to have some 22,000 troops in the ground in Louisiana by Friday.
But the state governor, Kathleen Blanco, said up to 300,000 survivors may still be stuck in disaster areas in the state, and at least 40,000 uniformed troops were needed for New Orleans alone.
Although no precise death toll was available, Blanco and Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu said several thousand people were now believed to have been killed by Katrina after it slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday.
Hundreds of stranded people waved flags on rooftops in a desperate bid to attract the attention of rescuers in New Orleans, while thousands remained trapped in the city's Superdome stadium which is surrounded by water.
But the rampant lawlessness distracted from frantic efforts to evacuate the city, where Nagin took hundreds of exhausted police off search and rescue duties to fight the looting gangs.
President George W. Bush, who was to visit the region Friday, vowed "zero tolerance" for armed gangs and other profiteers from the devastation wrought by Katrina.
But Thomas Jessie, a 31-year-old roofer, vented his fear and anger after spending a night in the squalor of the convention center with no National Guard or Red Cross workers in sight.
"We got dead bodies sitting next to us for days. I feel like I am going to die. People are going to kill you for water," Jessie told AFP.
"This is America, I don't understand the lack of communications between the authorities and the people," he said. "It is disgusting, we feel we have been forgotten."
Keshia Gray, 28, said the scene in the convention center turned more horrific by the hour.
"As the night went on, people were dying off. There were people shooting, fights broke out, the bathrooms were all clogged up and there was no water," she said. "Then the police started shooting. I couldn't stay in there."
A National Guardsman was shot outside the city's Superdome Stadium, which had housed up to 20,000 survivors in squalid, sweltering conditions before laborious evacuation operations began.
A shot was also fired at a Chinook helicopter taking part in the operation to move refugees out of the stadium to other cities, officials said.
Bush, criticized for his tardy response to the initial hours of the disaster, cranked up the federal government's relief machinery a day after cutting short his holiday to return to Washington.
The US Congress on Thursday also cut short its summer recess to hold emergency meetings aimed at quick passage of legislation allowing for 10 billion dollars in aid for victims of Katrina.
The president appealed for Americans to conserve car fuel for the next few weeks but said supply problems caused by damage to refineries on the Gulf Coast would only be temporary.
But US petrol stations saw panic buying and lengthening queues Thursday as a summer of pain for drivers battling sky-high oil prices intensified.
Officials moved to stave off mounting criticism of the response to what officials have called one of the worst natural disasters in US history, saying the flood waters were to blame for the slow progress.
"Let me emphasize, from the very beginning, and as we speak, rescue operations have continued and are continuing in full force," said Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.
Officials said more than two million customers in five states stretching from Louisiana to Florida were still without electric power.
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/050902001827.4oo7ci1a.html
Ain't gonna believe it unless verified by reputable sources.
Flipping the channels this afternoon, I believe it was a CNN "Journalist"
querrying one of the NG officers and sneeringly suggesting by her questions/accusations that just because they had been to Iraq did not mrean they were up to the job in NO. Kept asking just what special training made them capable of this job. I think she should have to patrol a few nights with the NG and gain an appreciation of their work.
Anyone else catch this?
vaudine
Did she really say all that stuff? The governor sounds like she's ready to shoot someone herself.
This has to be some frogs dream. Look at the source and consider the supposed source of the quotes. Blanco doesn't even have this kind of concept in her knowledgebase.
"LT... LT... we'll shoot those carrying Plasma TV's and Computers first... they can't eat that!"
About damn time!
Is this the same as Martial Law Declared? Any shooting to kill will likely result in a Guardsman being prosecuted by LA or Fed attorneys.
Sounds like the left cannot complain about sending the National Guard to Iraq now as they got field experience they simply COULD NOT get at home (although they are being called to put it into use here).
It's a quagmire in NO, LA!
We cannot win with troops trained in desert warfare!
WE are doomed because "They" hate us!!
It is not worth ONE soldier getting wet!
Bring the troops home now!
It's all Bush's fault!
(At least Ted Kennedy would feel at home swimming the canals.)
sarcasm off.