I'll be honest: I'm surprised and disappointed with a lot of the posts I've been reading on FTE the past few days in regards to the circumstances surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Judging the actions of people you don't even know (and apparently have little understanding of their exact situation), questioning why New Orleans was built in the first place, making fun of people in misery.

Are there people in that city acting like animals? Yes. Are they representative of most of the people of New Orleans, and do I condone what they've done? Of course not. But to judge people that have been tossed into the worst situation they could possibly be in is very small-minded, and incredibly unfair. Regardless of what you think of any of them, they are still AMERICANS. These are OUR people, and they need to be rescued, NOW. Let's figure out later who to blame for building New Orleans, for not forcing people to evacuate, for not having a perfect disaster plan, and who to comfort and who to throw in jail. Job 1 should be to get those people out of there, Job 2 should be to get the oil flowing and the refineries up and running.

I'll assume that, if you're at a computer, then you're NOT in the middle of that mess. Unless you're actually there in New Orleans, in THEIR shoes, then I think you should give all the second-guessing a rest. I'm not at all proud as to how long it's taking to get to these people. They may not be New Orleans "elite," they may not look like you and me, but they still deserve the best that THEIR country can give them. I don't think that's happened so far, and I don't blame them for being mad; I'd be pissed-off, too. As I type this, the National Guard is rolling in and let's hope they can rescue these people before any more die. And I sure don't want to hear any more excuses as to why this has taken so long. If we can blow $300 billion and nearly 2000 American lives on a bunch of Middle Easterners for their "freedom," we can certainly do better than that for our own people.

Thanks for listening and understanding, but I just can't believe that the greatest country in the world, the caretaker of the world, can't take better care of its own.

 

Lol!!! i just posted something identical on another thread! (thread: New Orleans...a few questions..)

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. Perfect wording & straight to the point.

Your a good man & I aggree completely with you.

 

True..totally agree on that middle eastern freedom comment. I sure wish i could help, but most places will only take cash...and well, i really need my cash right now

 

Yup, it's time to chill out a bit. I'm suprised we got so far without getting into a tad bit of trouble.

Honestly, I think that some of us might have been getting upset and writing things that we should not have. At the same time though, we have really kept our cool compared to people on some other boards that I have seen. People yelling at eachother and fighting over it all.

What truly matters though is the fact that these people are finally getting the help that they need.

- Chris

 

Amen Jeff!

 

I totally agree with everything you said with a few minor exceptions. Sure, it took longer than anyone expected to get these people out of there and somewhere safe, but... The basic logistics of mannig up, deciding what to take in, where to take these people, how to get them there, how to get in to them in the first place, is a monumental undertaking. No one could have imagined how big this thing was gonna be. Even if everyone knew that NO would be flooded like it was, the human imagination could not fathom the extent of it and the ensuing situation. It's only been four days since an entire city has been submerged. In my opinion they were getting everything done they could with what they had to work with, while adding resources and manning as it became available. It still takes a while to get an entire Army engineering batallion manned up and rolling. The Navy is bringing in ships from Norfolk (Mayport ships appearently had prior tasking or were on deployment already), that takes days to get to the GOM. The National Guard could have been there a little sooner, but remember, these people were at work at their civilian jobs when this happened, and many of them were victims themselves. The standard recall of a reserve or NG unit is 48 hours with a 96 hour on-scene availability, that's about where we are at. Of course that is not enough for the media, who stir up everything into a fault instead of appreciating the fact that they are there at all. These people make about a car payment a month for their service, and we (as in the general public) are being a little unappreciative of their efforts. As far as ordering these people to evacuate prior to the storm, they were ordered, and most heeded the warning and got out. There are some that could not get out for various reasons, sick, injured, old, poor, etc, and I agree more should have been done before to get them out, but there were people partying on Bourbon street Sunday night, WTF? Now, couple this with the fact that there are freakin' idiots running around looting, raping, killing, burning down buildings, and basically impeding the progress of the relief efforts, and you have recipe for disaster. And this is their own city! Martial law should definately be enacted and these criminals should be shot on site, but that willnever happen because then the ACLU, NAACP, mainsteam media, and every other bull**** liberal faction out there will be raising hell! So the government is damned if they do and damned if they don't, what's new? Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but I think it's a little unfair to compare this to anything else our country has faced. It is it's own situation, with unique challenges and we are doing the best we can. It is not perfect, but it will get better.

 

against all odds, this guys got a connection http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

 

Jeff, like onespeed stated.........it takes time to mobilize. The mid-east analogy is not fair. We didn't decide to occupy Iraq and then the very next day we were magically there.


A quote from a NG top officer was something to the effect that we couldn't possibly have positioned troops to anticipate this...........they'd be dead or we'd be rescuing them, also.

And I do believe the scum that are shooting and stealing non-essentials are a small minority of the total people suffering.

EVERYTHING else I concur with you on...........I cannot possibly comprehend what these people are going through. I wish them all nothing but good if that can ever be possible after this.

 

Where a lot of the blame can be directed is to the News Media. Because it makes a good story, they concentrate on human suffering and tragedy. What they do not mention is the things that small and never recognized hero's have done to save people.

There has been little if any coverage of those the were evacuated. Where is the thanks for the ones giving the orders to leave, and direct all of this. What would the death toll be had they not.

It is human nature to pounce on prey like a starving animal.

I just read on MSN.com that a Hugh Military Convoy of food and supplies for people is driving through the flood even as we speak for the Dome. The Military has orders to take back New Orleans from the looters and restore order. It is no longer hit and miss with rescue. The mass humanitarian effort is now starting to shine.


Wise words 1956, I agree.

 

I agree with 95% of your post, Jeff. I know that it takes time to rapidly deploy Guardsman. I am one. Having been active duty before National Guard, I see the differences. Like onespeed said, everyone is at their own civilian jobs until the call comes. Then it takes 48 hours to mobilize, minimum. Not to mention the logistical nightmare of the very area they were trying to reach being underwater. I think that as Americans we have been waaay to quick to start talking negitavely about the timescale of relief. Way too quick. I think that what was done was all that physically could have been done. If help and relief were always snap-your-fingers quick, then massive hurricanes wouldn't be called natural disasters. They would be called natural inconveniences, or natural annoyances. Nobody likes to see that suffering down in New Orleans and Gulfport, and Biloxi and all those places. But lets not let our disbelief over what happened down there turn into a blame game about how we should have had a quarter of a million people rescued before it stopped raining. There are certain things that are just plain and simple impossible.

 

I understand that it NORMALLY takes some time to get these things rolling. But if ever there were a time to throw the antiquated military rule book out the window, this was it. For example:

The president goes on national TV, all networks, and announces to all Guard members to be ready in X number of hours to deploy. Close all interstates within 200 miles of New Orleans to everything but emergency traffic and military convoys. People need to be rescued by boat? Fine- commandeer the boats you need from operating marinas, with the promise they'll get their boats back when we're done.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea of what I think should have happened. This is a desperate situation that requires desperate measures by take-charge leaders, and anyone in this country that has a problem with such actions can take it up with their attorney; we'll settle it later. Like I initially said, I don't want to hear, nor wil I accept, excuses for any of this. If you say you can't do something, your prediction is guaranteed to come true. Is it a question of being unable or unwilling to handle the situation? I'll let you decide all of that, but I know we could have handled this a lot better than we did. This is NOT the proudest moment in our history.

 

Your scenario would have worked if anyone knew how bad it was. After the storm, the news reporters were STILL saying "Thank God the eyewall missed New Orleans" and "Wow, it could have been a lot worse"! Nobody knew the gravity of of it until 24 hours after the storm was gone! I will say that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get those troops in there faster than what they did. If they could have, don't you think they would have? It's not fair to criticize an enourmous effort like this. This has not happened ever before, by the way..........

 

Computer models had accurately predicted exactly what a level 4 or 5 storm would do. The problem is not with the human imagination, this was not a surprise to many scientists. Recognizing the problem was never the problem, reacting to it (ignoring) was.
Dono

 

Please view thread:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=407984

I'll leave it at that.

~Wolf