READ CAREFULLY!!!!!!

Troops begin COMBAT OPERATIONS in New Orleans

By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer


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.”

Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.

Dozens of military trucks and UP-ARMORED Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.

“We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,” Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.”

While some fight the INSURGENCY in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.

Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and police helicopters filled the city sky Friday morning. Most had armed soldiers manning the doors. According to Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeremy Grishamn, a spokesman for the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the vessel kept its helicopters at sea Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.

Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any servicemen being wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome Wednesday night.

“I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”

Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he knows there are plenty of decent people in New Orleans, but he said it is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.

“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”

The media is now going to really pump up the racism to try and get whites to cheer on and justify the US governments treatment of a disaster as a counter-insurgency operation, which is what they have done from the start.
The US state is now openly, as the above shows, declaring war - literally declaring war - on survivors who they have held in there on a policy of containment, from the beginning sending in armed troops to shoot looters instead of aid to help people and buses and boats to get people out.
The military are now describing New Orleans residents as "insurgents".

It is absolutely essential to give solidarity and help to the people in there by publicising the way the US military-state is dealing with this.
There is a real chance of riots in cities across America as black workers in particular realise more and more what is happening. (If so, fascist little fucks are going to try and turn it into a race war.)
We need to fight to defend the working class of New Orleans, black and white, who have been left to die, and now apparently to be ACTIVELY KILLED, by their government.
Do not just let them do this. The next few days are of huge importance to the American working class (and therefore the global working class).
This is one we have to really fight for.