"Louisiana National Guard troops watch Katrina from Iraq"

[Bluebear]

Google news

More than 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Brigade serving in Iraq can only watch from Baghdad as Hurricane Katrina bears down on their families and homes in New Orleans and the other south Louisiana communities from which they hail. The deployed soldiers and their equipment, which includes high water vehicles, Humvees and generators, will be sorely missed as Louisiana attempts to prepare for and recover from the historic Category Five storm.

The soldiers of the 256th are due home in October, assuming their tour isn’t extended to beef up US troop levels in Iraq for the October constitutional referendum and December general elections. Mississippi and Alabama, the other states under threat from Katrina’s second assault on the Gulf Coast, also have Guard contingents in Iraq, with 3,500 troops of Mississippi’s 155th Brigade Combat Team serving near Karbala and Najaf, while 140 Alabama Guard troops left last Sunday for training preparatory to joining some 2,000 Alabama troops already deployed overseas.

Governors throughout the country have watched anxiously as the Guard units they count on to see their states through natural disasters have been called up for service in Iraq, in many cases leaving behind tanks and other heavy armor while taking with them the kinds of equipment that are most valuable in coping with the aftermath of storms, floods and earthquakes.

President Bush has already created one Gulf wasteland. In a few days he’ll be offering condolences to the residents of another; one he didn’t create, only stripped of its guardians in service of something he can’t even define.


http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1093

[KamaAina]

1. You have got to be freakin' kidding me.

Or rather, Bush and PNAC do.

I don't suppose there's a Cat 5 hurricane headed for Iraq... wait a minute... Louisiana does have oil... what to do?! :sarcasm:

[steve2470]

2. so fucking ironic, I hope Bush feels guilty forever about this nt

[Lorien]

4. He's a sociopath. He only feels for himself. n/t

[Lorien]

3. My God, this is all so f*cking criminal

What a horrific waste. Those guardsmen-I can only imagine how heartsick they are, and how they are seething inside. BushCo MUST be held accountable for this grave misuse of our National guard and resources!

[Bluebear]

5. OT those are some hypnotizing kittiycats!

And yes, he must be held responsible.

[Fleshdancer]

6. &$%@*&! DAMN IT

I can't believe I'm about to say this but this is one of the few times I can buy into the ridiculous idea that ignorance is bliss. Can you imagine what these soldiers are going through right now? They signed up to protect a country they can't help and their family members are evacuating a city that might not exist when they get back.

fuck. they all deserve so much better than this.

on edit: rage doesn't help my grammar

[Hekate]

7. We could all see this coming as the NG got shipped out

States count on those men and women to pitch in and help out with all kinds of natural disasters.

To make matters even worse, all over the country many first responders employed in communities are also in the Reserves. So now smaller communities are short of firefighters, EMTs, cops...

When I read about this three years ago I saw this coming like a train wreck.

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#

[fujiyama]

8. The National Guard

should be the first defense in any major domestic disturbance.

They are not cops meant to be patrolling hostile occupied nations, fighting in unecessary and unjustified wars abroad.

This pisses me off so much. This is bullshit. Every governor should be screaming their head off like Brian Schwietzer of Montana after the wildfires.

[Maple]

9. It must be driving them crazy!

The big one...after what...500 years?

And they are stuck in Iraq, frantic about their families.

[fleabert]

10. nominated, because this is all Shrub's fucking fault.

if clinton was held accountable for a fucking blow-job, shit-head should be held accountable for this.

[Bluebear]

11. You said a mouthful brother

Oh, that's unintentionally funny. But anyhow, what you said.

[fleabert]

12. (sister, btw)

but that's okay, the name isn't really clear.

I hate shit-head, the only person in the world I really, truly, HATE.

[Bluebear]

14. With ya, my sister

:toast:

[rucky]

13. "Stay The Course"

(not you, hurricane)

For those keeping track of how many Americans Bush has indirectly killed & injured, you can chalk up a few more today.

Overstatement?...Charles Manson didn't actually "kill" anybody, either.

[weldon berger]

15. I've already gotten some nasty emails about the story

from people accusing me of politicizing this disaster, which is true in a narrow sense. Add up the numbers, though, and you get 10,000 or more National Guard troops who won't be in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana because they're in Iraq. I don't know if Florida or Alabama will be mobilizing their Guards, but Louisiana and Mississippi for damn sure will, and that's almost 7,000 men and women who through no fault of their own won't be where they're truly needed.

Gulf Coast governors are always willing to lend Guard units to one another in situations like this but they're all strapped now, and help will have to come from farther away. It's such a huge disaster that they would have needed additional help anyway, but it's just that much worse with so many people gone and with so much equipment that would have been on the scene but now has to be flown in from elsewhere.

I just can't imagine what those Guard troops and their families are going through right now.

Meanwhile, I'm burning a CD with every New Orleans tune I have on it.

Thanks for picking up the story, Bluebear.

[Bluebear]

17. Cheers, Weldon, nice work nt

[chelaque liberal]

18. Your point is well taken.

Just yesterday morning, when I was still blissfully ignorant of what was going on in the gulf, my husband and I were talking about the the state of everything; education-he's a teacher, health care-I'm a nurse, the war, etc. We both agreed that we knew Bush would be bad for the country but we never would have believed how bad. Now this....

Welcome to DU, BTW.

[newyawker99]

19. Hi weldon berger!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[MadeinOhio]

16. There's something ironic about all of this.....

The fact that it keeps happening to Mississippi and Alabama. Conservatives have finally gone too far in my view, and their evil has retribution in every single area. Including retribution for any stolen elections.

If only this was not so, but the state of Ohio is embroiled in this affair. I also hope and pray the remaining good conservatives can alter the minds of their conservative brethren, before all of them pay the price.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi MadeinOhio!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Pithy Cherub]

21. The National Guard from the Gulf Coast

will need help getting information quickly. More worried about how they are mentally being aided through this and they need support.

May there be a special place in Hell reserved for Bush.

[Junkdrawer]

22. Kicked and nominated.

:kick:

[Junkdrawer]

23. .

[Bluebear]

24. .