After Hurricane Katrina, it appears that the first response is for National Guard to get called in and confiscate all registered weapons in the crisis area. Therefore, I’m going to create a door mat that says:
Dear National Guard,
All of my registered firearms
were looted yesterday
Best Regards
I swear I thought we were innocent until proven guilty in the United States of America. Why would you collect innocent people’s self defense weapons just as they need them most…unless you stereotype anyone with a registered weapon to be a criminal or a threat to society. Criminals don’t typically register their weapons, now do they…
One of the Tennessee Army National Guard units I worked with while on Homeland Security actually got called up to go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
What was interesting is they were at first told to shoot all looters, which at the time meant not distinguishing between people stealing TV sets from Walmart and people scrounging up bottled water and food for survival.
Funny, Walmart later collected from Insurance all their loses no matter whether it was looting or survival stuff as if the Hurricane had destroyed it all anyway, even plastic wrapped merchandise Walmart could ship elsewhere and still sell to people who didn’t know it had been through the Hurricane.
Unfortunately for anybody that got shot scrounging up bottled water for his family whom got left behind from the poor evacuation procedures, it didn’t matter that Walmart collected from their insurance.
Wow Dawson, that’s even worse than what I initially heard. And for the record, I have nothing against members of the National Guard, I have respect for them and their intent. I just don’t think the orders they are given are always sensible…or in some cases, like policing U.S. citizens, legal.
The biggest fear I have of how things go down in the U.S., is that those giving the orders for something don’t always know they are leading others into certain death. When do you fight back against cousin Billy when he’s trying to put you on the train thinking it is the best thing, when he does not know the final destination… but you suspect that you do. At first, most people think they are on the right side of the conflict, and everyone with a differing opinion is the enemy. Where do you draw the line and risk being perceived as a criminal for your own self preservation???
I can only hope that my door mat will never be a necessity, as things will not go well from that moment forward.
Look what just happened with the FBI raid on Gibson Guitars (I emailed You Know Who with that story).
Yes, there are many fine people in Our military and police, which we need in case of local or National Emergencies. I, myself, miss not being able to be called up as National Guard for Natural Disaster assistance. And the U.S. military is the World’s largest Trade School.
But there are people in both the military and police who are only one step removed from following orders of any kind that would be just as illegal as what we tried the Nazi’s for at the end of World War II.
There was one Captain and a First Sergeant, both National Guard (which are also Army Reserves in case you didn’t know the “Guard” are both) I worked with during Homeland Security that I sincerely hope never get sent into a combat zone because they treated their troops so badly I figure their own troops would “Frag” them both; that is, throw a hand grenade in their tent while they are sleeping and kill them. Watch the movie “Animal House” sometime and you will see what these college Frat Boy R.O.T.C. Reserve Officers think the military is supposed to be about. These types are power crazy Nazi’s in waiting. And unfortunately, they usually do a lot of harm before they get turned over to the Inspector General and JAG’s legal staff for processing out.
And you better believe there were a lot of these called up to Active Duty (it was really George Bush’s “Backdoor Draft”) National Guard and Reservist “Citizen Soldiers” who loved to put the uniform on and strut around in parades, but were the whiniest cry-babies when it came to working weekends, nights, graveyard shift, or out in the rain or snow. Those kind of “Weekend Warriors” only want to do their once a month dress-up “Drill” and pretend to be a soldier “Training,” which to them is a spare paycheck for beer money. I always said, “Don’t work with amateurs, they’ll get you killed;” and it was working with just such amateurs that caused my injuries that got me Medically Boarded Out into the world of Disabled Veterans. I never got hurt (badly) jumping out of planes or helicopters or out in “The Field” with the 82nd Airborne Division
By the way, Soldiers may not just shoot looters–you have to follow exact “Rules of Engagement” for “Use of Deadly Force” written on a card we all had to carry at all times in our top pocket–or even follow any “orders” knowingly (and how many really know) which would cause Human Rights Abuses or be contrary to Constitutional Law. Again, most soldiers might not understand an order to shoot scavengers of food and water (called “looters” by a superior) is an “illegal” order, until it is too late and they are being Court Martialed themselves.
I not only had people on “Legal Hold” for the Reservist MP atrocities pulled at the Iraqi Prison Abu Ghraib, living right there in the old wooden two-story WWII Barracks in historical designated “Old Division” at Ft. Bragg, NC, where I stayed while I was on “Medical Hold,” but one of my nephews was in the Marine Corps Reserve unit sent to Abu Ghraib to relieve the Army Reservists and make sure no more bad Press Relations came from there. I ate in the same Ft. Bragg mess hall with a pregnant Lynndie England who was the female soldier in the famous picture with the dog leash on a naked Iraqi prisoner. And she had really been so naive as to believe she was just doing what was expected of her by superiors. She was a dumb Redneck in a Reservist uniform pretending to be a soldier, led by self-important Cretins.
For the record I had 3 nephews serve in the ongoing Iraq War, which I still consider an illegal War and think George W. Bush should have to answer to the International Criminal Court of The Hague in the Netherlands for War Crimes Against Humanity. But my nephews had to go over the same as we sent people to Vietnam. The idea of the Iraq War was to “Never have a Clear Objective” but just to waste time using Reservist for occupational Cannon Fodder for as long as possible while Raiding the U.S. Treasury and stealing as much un-metered Oil as possible and shipping it out on Oil Tankers with no paper trail; the whole time gas prices have been going up over here, the Oil Companies were stealing tanker fleet loads of Oil off the docks of Iraq as free reserves for themselves–there never were any WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction), just hollow Saddam Hussein boasts, and there never was any Al Qaeda in Iraq until after we invaded and made an opening for them. Always, always, always “Follow the Money.” In this case to Banks in Uruguay and Dubai and who bought land there, and I’ll drop that for another time and place.
I had 1 nephew come back with 2 purple hearts, one we got to see him hit by shrapnel on National News during the first Iraqi Elections where he was guarding the election booths covered by News cameras. Luckily he came back with all his fingers and toes and now they have promoted him to Major and made him an Army Instructor. Luckily my other 2 nephews who went to Iraq didn’t see much action and both bailed out of the Reserves when they got home.
To give you an idea of what I mean by “Backdoor Draft” is that I only know of 2 units, 1 State National Guard unit and 1 Army Reserve unit that were not called up, but volunteered for Active Duty during the whole of the Vietnam “Police Action.” One of these was a “Ranger” unit and the other a “Special Forces (Green Beret)” unit, and both wanted experience “In Theatre.”
George Bush had to send inexperienced Guard and Reserves over to Iraq so they wouldn’t ask the hard questions regular Active Duty military would ask about “WTF is the Mission.” Otherwise, G.W. Bush would have had to bring back the Selective Service Draft and stand up to the same honest scrutiny that Presidents Johnson and Nixon had to undergo during all the very Public in-the-TV-News protests of our involvement in Vietnam. So don’t ever think ol’ “W” was stupid–you look up the phrase “Beady Eyed” in the Dictionary and the definition is: “George W. Bush.”
I really appreciate your feedback on this Dawson, it’s enlightening. I kind of wondered about the abundance of National Guard being put into service back then. Seemed to free up some jobs here, so I thought maybe that was part of it. Hadn’t really thought about it being the need for naive troops for that conflict.
Keep in mind it is usually some Dip-shit Mayor or Governor (the Commander-In-Chief of his State Guard units) that during some Natural Disaster gives the National Guard some such illegal “order” as to “shoot all looters on sight” or to “confiscate personal weapons.”
And that Mayor or Governor is usually playing up to the Press at the time not thinking about the real needs of the Natural Disaster victims, but how his speech will sound towards getting him re-elected.