Back to Katrina.....Part 2

US Stormtroopers hoist poverty- and flood-stricken victim aboard
a helicopter gunship enroute to a concentration camp,
after blowing other hapless victims to pieces for fun.

columnist Mark Steyn has an outstanding take on Katrina Derangement Syndrome, the strange malady that has afflicted the world Media Establishment and infected every liberal corner of the globe over the last two weeks:

I'll leave it to future generations of historians to settle the precise moment at which Hurricane Katrina finally completed its transformation into a Kansas-type twister, and swept up the massed ranks of the world's press to deposit them on the wilder shores of the Land of Oz. But for a couple of weeks now they've been there frolicking and gambolling as happy Media Munchkins, singing and dancing "Ding Dong, The Bush Is Dead".

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the storm is exhausted, meteorologically and politically. Power has been restored to the whole of Mississippi (much quicker than in Euro-style big-government Quebec during the 1998 ice storm, incidentally), the Big Easy is being pumped free of water far ahead of anybody's expectations, and, as the New York Times put it: "Death Toll In New Orleans May Be Lower Than First Feared".

No truth in the rumour that early editions read "Than First Hoped".

Steyn's column is an answer to this egregious, but sadly typical, Euro-take on the Katrina disaster, The Flood That Released America's Demons:

America may have given the world the space shuttle and, er, condensed milk, but behind the veneer of civilization most Americans barely have the brains to walk on their back legs.

...When the rules and everything else were washed out of new Orleans, everyone went to the default setting of the terminally stupid: violence.

I'm not talking about the armed gangs now. I'm talking about the authorities who, rather than try to feed the poor and needy, summoned the Marines and started acting like they were in a Hollywood film.

"They've got M16s which are locked and loaded," said one official. And I bet she hadn't the first idea what "locked and loaded" meant. She'd just heard Bruce Willis say it at some point and figured it sounded good.

Hollywood has taught America that the military can solve anything. It's full of chisel-jawed heroes who never leave a man on the field and never fail to get the job done. So they'd have New Orleans sorted out in a jiffy.

Unfortunately, on the street you've got some poor, starving souls helping themselves to a packet of food from a ruined, deserted supermarket. And as a result, finding themselves being blown to pieces by a helicopter gunship. With the none-too-bright soldiers urged on by their illiterate political masters, the poor and needy never stood a chance. It's easier and much more fun to shoot someone than make them a cup of tea.

Especially if they're black.

The author is a coumnist for the London Sun who also reviews cars on the Brit program Top Gear, which runs on the Discovery Channel.

US Gestapo Agent attempts to push screaming poor black woman
and her starving child out of sinister "Blackhawk" gunship,
according to European sources

Nothing like the spirit of reason and moderation from the culturally-superior cradle of Western Civilization. We have so much to learn from them.

Monk

Update: Chefjef responds:

I am trying REALLY hard to refrain from using profanity in responding to that garbage posted in the London Sun. That was complete non-sense.

Amen.

While I am at it, let me put a plug in for us Guard members. Many active duty - and even reserve - service people joke about the Guard. Heck, when I was active and in the reserves I did too. But we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan and now NO and Biloxi that the Guard plays an important role in the overall national defense and civil security. Moreover, in some cases they do it at personal financial loss. My unit (217th M.P. company) has been in Biloxi for a couple of weeks. Many members of the unit are members of civilian law enfrcemnt (some are colleagues of mine at M.P.D.)

While some of us were allowed to stay behind as "necessary personnel" to civilian law enforcement, others had to leave. The initial activiation was a Title 32 State activiation. As a result, my M.P.D. friends have traded their $35K to $40K + salaries, plus semi-unlimited $25/hr overtime and off-duty jobs, for somewhere in the neighborhood of $220 per week of State compensation.

Furthermore, as all of the video, photographic and print media evidence shows, these Guardsman (along with civilian law enforcement, active military, and civilian organizations and individual volunteers) are rescuing, clothing, feeding and comforting victims of this disaster.

Amen again. I have nothing but admiration for the Guard. Incidentally, a number of Guard units perform unique missions (like the Commando Solo unit in PA) that no active-duty unit can perform.

As with many other challenges, we Americans are pulling together and overcoming through hard-work, sacrifice and faith - without begging for foreign help - as we have done for ourselves and many others around the globe for generations. The relatively minute incidents of law breaking are being handled as quickly and thoroughly as the devastating circumstances currently allow.

In conclusion, I have only two words for the London Sun - up yours.

Chefjef

Lemme hear all y'all say, "Amen, brother!"

Monk