If We Understand New Orleans; we understand the Bush strategy
Mike WhitneySeptember 13, 2005 New Orleans provides us with a reliable template for judging what the Bush administration will do in the event of a massive "casualty-producing" terrorist attack. However depressing, this is useful information.
Special military units will be deployed to the affected areas to patrol the streets in heavily-armored vehicles; conducting house-to-house searches according to their own discretion.
The cities will be placed under martial law; invoking shoot to kill orders for anyone either looting or out of doors after the designated curfew.
Heavily-armed mercenaries and paramilitaries will be used on various assignments that require secrecy or additional security. We assume they will be used to protect dignitaries, perform harsh and illegal interrogations, intimidate dissidents, and subvert efforts by the media to provide accurate information from the region.
A massive media campaign will be mounted to create a narrative of an "involved and compassionate government" providing security to their people in times of crisis.
Is this a fair description of what is taking place in New Orleans?
There's little doubt that the Bush administration capitalized on the hurricane to activate its strategy to militarize the city. There's ample evidence that they had extensive knowledge of the magnitude of the disaster, and yet, chose to do nothing. In fact, for more than 3 days they prevented food, water or medicine from entering the stricken city. Here are just a few of the headlines that illustrate this point, although there are numerous others:
"FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations.''"FEMA turns away experienced firefighters.''"FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks.''"FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel.''"Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.''"FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans.''"FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid.''"FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board.''"FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck.''"FEMA turns away generators.''"FEMA first responders urged not to respond.''
The administration's criminal negligence in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of New Orleans occupants is not in doubt, nor is their predictable response in countering the bad press. Michael Brown said it best when he noted that he wanted "to convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizers, and the general public." Brown's "positive image" of the catastrophe has been left to the usual Bush media-operatives, who have deftly shifted the national dialogue away from "criminal negligence" to the more benign-sounding "government unresponsiveness" or "failure of leadership." Neither of these have anything to do with the facts as we now understand them. Many of the people who died in the disaster were murdered by their government just as surely as if Bush had personally held their heads under water himself.
full story at SOTT
posted by ... @ 11:39 AM
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