The National Shame.

[weaklingrecords]

I cannot even begin to put into words my feelings about people who have looted stores for guns, who then fire those guns at helicopters attempting to deliver much needed food and medical supplies to hospitals in New Orleans

Comments

[mervlurker]

I know... the first thing that came to mind when I first heard about the shooting was "oh crap... some southern militia chapter working hard to 'keep big government off our backs.'" I still don't know much about what's going on with that, but I'm hoping it's just a few individuals who've been driven batshit crazy by something in the floodwater.

Article on the national guard personnel working on disaster relief:

http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200509020719.asp

[weaklingrecords]

I think the situation is a little more complicated than I make it out to be, but I also think the situation is more complicated than Mr. Robbins makes it out to be. The 10% of America's Army in Iraq is a little bit disingenuous and a good example that you can make numbers say anything that you want them to say. The total number of troops in the Army includes all the wounded, all of the new recruits, and all of the desk jockies around the globe who are still considered "active duty." The other issue is that National Guards(wo)men who have just returned from Iraq are not sitting around thinking to themselves, "Wow, what should I do now?" They're returning to their jobs, their families, their lives. They have served their time in Iraq, many on much longer tours than they were ever expected to (thank you, Stop Loss Order). So their preparedness is not what it could or should be, were we not involved in the way that we are in Iraq

[bassmike]

I think I said last night, after watching some of the coverage of New Orleans, that I wished Guiliani was President.

[weaklingrecords]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html

[mervlurker]

Due respect, but this guy sounds like a bloody idiot. So let's get Bush back into his flight suit, have him "come off the doggone chopper and start cussing," and maybe this fellow will give him some props for being more of a "John Wayne dude."

[weaklingrecords]

This article has been bugging me all day. I blame you

[mervlurker]

I blame me too.

There are actually (according to Robbins) 261,000 troops, or about 25% of our military, stationed overseas, with 12.6% (about half of the total deployed) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not sure how many of those non-Iraq/Afghanistan troops are working on the "War on Terror," but surely some of them should be counted as well. And maybe I'm just nitpicking, because I do get where you're coming from.

Still, which do you think it is... too few troops deployed in Iraq, or too many? The "get out now" crowd would like to see the number reduced to 0% of our military, whereas the "do it right" crowd would like to see it increased, I would think, to something closer to 20% (about 200,000 troops). The "do it right" crowd, then, would leave what percentage for dealing with problems like Katrina?