(no subject)
Sep. 2nd, 2005 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nirix5This thing with New Orleans is un-fucking-beliveable. How is it that we can give millions of dollars in aid to everyone else, but we can't pull one of our own cities out of the fire? Not to malign the National Guard, but where the fuck is the army?
(Oh, wait. They're fighting a war someplace else that no one on either side really wants them involved in, and the only thing the President is doing is smirking through a Barbara Walters interview, the son of a bitch.)
In addition to the main network news, PBS also broadcasts the BBC World News. Unlike other American news, BBC shows all the footage of refugees screaming things like, "Where is George Bush? Why the hell hasn't help come? etc." This makes me smirk because the networks don't show it, or really anything that would cast W in a negative light. It's all toned down.
Christ, this whole thing is heartbreaking.
You would think that with all the emergency planning, they would have planned for something BESIDES terrorism. Apparently, working out a flood scenario for New Orleans in case of a monster hurricane was on the list, but the White House said, nah, fuck that. We're going to spend millions of dollars on a color alert system that no one pays attention to instead. Oh, and New Orleans? By the way, you're not getting any funding to shore up your levees so they can withstand anything higher than a category 3 hurricane. Sorry.
/disgust
(Oh, wait. They're fighting a war someplace else that no one on either side really wants them involved in, and the only thing the President is doing is smirking through a Barbara Walters interview, the son of a bitch.)
In addition to the main network news, PBS also broadcasts the BBC World News. Unlike other American news, BBC shows all the footage of refugees screaming things like, "Where is George Bush? Why the hell hasn't help come? etc." This makes me smirk because the networks don't show it, or really anything that would cast W in a negative light. It's all toned down.
Christ, this whole thing is heartbreaking.
You would think that with all the emergency planning, they would have planned for something BESIDES terrorism. Apparently, working out a flood scenario for New Orleans in case of a monster hurricane was on the list, but the White House said, nah, fuck that. We're going to spend millions of dollars on a color alert system that no one pays attention to instead. Oh, and New Orleans? By the way, you're not getting any funding to shore up your levees so they can withstand anything higher than a category 3 hurricane. Sorry.
/disgust
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 04:06 pm (UTC)While the Army can't deploy on US Soil, we SHOULD still have been ready. Keep the national guard on national soil, damnit! Stop sending national guard international. Iraq is not an American state, nor a colony. And we don't need an Imperial Guard, so bring those troops home!
Honestly, I don't see how we could have gone this far that we can bomb Bin-Ladden into hiding, and we can f*ck Saddam in the a** with a bunker-buster, but what? We can't get food, medicine and transportation to our own people??
It's just stupid sh*t like this that makes me pissed with Bush...
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 04:16 pm (UTC)Really, I think this seems to be a failure on seeral levels, Bush's including. Blame can be assigned later. Now what matters is correcting it.
I gather there's rules for what kind of troops can be deployed in this, so I'll have to agree that sending away the troops you do need and can use in such a situation seems in hindsight not so good. The army in general seems overstretched, and I guess this just shows it more. Failure of planning, perhaps.
Sadly, those who pay it are not those who made the mistake.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 06:51 pm (UTC)And also, this is kind of an emergency. It seems stupid to stick with some policy like that right now.
You're not the only one pissed with Bush. This is disgraceful- it's been said before, but it's true, dammit.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 09:35 pm (UTC)The National Guard can be deployed wherever you want, within the US, and in my opinion, with respect to Hawaii and Alaska, the National Guad should be limited to the Continental United States... none of this "Oh, we have an embassy in Tajikistan. Let's send fifty platoons of National Guard to protect our land in Tajikistan!" bullshit.
I think the reason the army as a whole and the other divisions of armed forces can't deploy on American soil goes back to Rome's ban of marching the army to the capitol... but now, our military is so powerful that unless there's a fucking Russian invasion (or British), we're not going to see Navy and Marines deployed to go distribute rations and medications...
And hey, even if we could send all our troops to help re-locate the survivors, do you honestly think a bullshit-headed ass like bush is going to send the right number of troops? He's to busy with his Iraqi obsession...