[Mb-civic] New Orleans and Baghdad-two sides of the same policy - World Socialist Web Site

[William Swiggard]

New Orleans and Baghdad—two sides of the same policy
By Bill Van Auken
3 September 2005

As US National Guard troops—just returned from Iraq—moved into New 
Orleans Friday with “shoot-to-kill” orders, and Blackhawk helicopters 
flew over the city, the essential unity between the policies pursued by 
Washington at home and abroad found stark expression.

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum of the National Guard said half of the 7,000 
National Guardsmen arriving in Louisiana had shortly before been serving 
overseas and were “highly proficient in the use of lethal force.”

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco declared, “They have M-16s and they 
are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot to kill... and I 
expect they will.”

The reaction of the Bush administration to the catastrophe of its own 
making in the invasion of Iraq and its response to the disaster 
unleashed by Hurricane Katrina on the US Gulf Coast have both revealed 
gross incompetence and a criminal contempt for human life. Both have led 
to soaring death tolls and immense suffering.

There are direct connections between the humanitarian catastrophe in 
Iraq and the one that is unfolding in New Orleans. Barely a month ago, 
Lt. Colonel Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard complained to 
the media that essential equipment the force had taken to Iraq last 
October—humvees, high-water vehicles, generators and refuelers—had been 
left in the country. He stressed that in the event of a serious natural 
disaster, the lack of the equipment could pose problems in mounting a 
speedy rescue and relief response.

The failure of the levee and the flooding of 80 percent of New Orleans 
are linked to repeated budget cuts carried out by the Bush 
administration since the war in Iraq began.

In the 2004 budget, the Army Corps of Engineers requested $11 million 
for a hurricane protection project in the New Orleans area. It was 
allotted just half that amount, $5.5 million. In the 2005 budget, the 
Corps requested $22.5 million, and received one quarter of its request, 
$5.7 million. In the 2006 budget, the Bush administration proposed an 
appropriation of just $2.9 million.

Where the money meant to reinforce the levees and protect New Orleans 
went was no mystery to local officials. Walter Maestri, emergency 
management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the 
Times-Picayune in June 2004: “It appears that the money has been moved 
in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in 
Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy 
that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to 
make the case that this is a security issue for us.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/noir-s03.shtml