[Marxism] New Orleans Army General: "Weapons Down"

[Joaquín Bustelo <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fred Feldman quotes the Army Times:

*  *  *

NEW ORLEANS - Combat operations are underway on the streets "to take
this city back" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"This place is going to look like Little Somalia," Brig. Gen. Gary
Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force told
Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared
to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area
outside the Louisiana Superdome. "We're going to go out and take this
city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under
control."

*  *  *

There is clearly a division in ruling class circles and media on this. 

Lt. General Russel Honore, Commanding General of the First Army which
seems to be the headquarters for the effort, and New Orleans mayor Ray
Nagin --with the very evident sympathy of most but not all of CNN, the
NY Times, and some other media outlets-- are completely against this
approach, which is being pushed by the yahoo neocons and most --but not
all-- of the FOX News on-air people.

Honore very intelligently took a CNN crew with him, essentially
embedded, who filmed him ordering his own troops and even the city cops
to "point your weapons down, Goddamit!" and "sling 'em." CNN has three
or four clips on its web site lionizing Honore (as well as the mayor's
now-famous radio interview where Nagin praises him as a kick ass
commander).

There will be elements of both the humanitarian relief effort and storm
trooper occupation in the military operation in New Orleans. Which is
predominating is probably not something we can tell easily from the
outside in real time. But which is being projected by the army's
commander is clearly not in line with the Army Times report.

In various interviews with CNN, Gral. Honore responded to questions
about looting and anarchy by saying that there's some criminal activity,
just like anywhere else in the country, but what he was seeing in town
was a lot of families who needed water, food and medicine and need to be
evacuated.

Interestingly, the army has obviously made a purchase of advertising on
CNN.COM, and several different recruitment commercials are running
before the CNN reports, especially those that highlight the army in this
rather positive light that Gral. Honore is projecting. The armed forces
as an institution are very consciously associating themselves with the
Honore approach, not the Army Times approach.

Joaquín


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism