The commander of active duty troops involved in hurricane relief efforts said Sunday his soldiers will not enforce New Orleans' order for residents to evacuate the flooded city.
Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore said military units are continuing to provide food and water and other aid despite the order, which he indicated is the responsibility of state and local authorities to enforce.
"Federal troops will not be involved in the direct evacuation in any way, of any one, from their home. That is a local and state law enforcement task not to include federal troops," Honore told CNN's "Late Edition."
He added that local officials and the National Guard also are providing food and water to people who have stayed.
Thousands of residents are defying orders to leave the city, but security forces were not physically forcing anyone to go. The mayor, Ray Nagin, had warned that residents could be forcibly removed, but authorities have been reluctant to take that step.
I think General Honore is doing a great job so far.
He obviously knows a thing or two about how to avoid quagmires.
AFTERTHOUGHT: Am I alone in thinking that the New Orleans mess might turn out to be a defining moment (a turning point, even?) in the clash between communitarian and libertarian philosophies?
posted by Eric on 09.11.05 at 02:20 PM
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I worry that because of local mistakes many will expect the feds to federalize emergencies immediately. In American history crises have led to expansions of government. The Right still hasn't reversed the expansions from the Great Depression (and have no desire to do so).
I agree, but what we're seeing right now (the idea of "helping" people by force, and taking away their guns, etc.) is the communitarian impulse run amok.
I think this particular disaster -- unlike most previous natural disasters -- exposed the shortcomings posed by the negation of American self reliance, and I hope it stimulates a serious debate. (As Confucius said, give a man a fish, he's fed for a day; teach him to fish and he'll feed himself for life.)
When the government "helps" people beyond a certain point, they become incapable of helping themselves. (A bad idea at all, but a disaster in case of disaster.)
I am not so callused as to maintain there should be no federal disaster aid, but the theory is to get people back on their feet. When they never WERE on their feet, it's another problem entirely.
(At the risk of oversimplification, a hand up should never be a handout.)
Excellent analysis. I have already stated by own analysis here. This hurricane, like the Great Depression of 1929, is the new Utopia of the economic and racial collectivist Left. They are using it to (both metaphorically and literally) drown out the memory of that other event of September 11 four years ago.
In honor of the Left, I suggest that we rename "the Great Depression" the Great Elation, and build a monument to that glorious day of October 24, 1929, showing Karl Marx, V. I. Lenin, Josef Stalin, and FDR all jumping for joy at that great victory for the progressive forces of socialism.
If all works as planned, we could build a similar monument depicting these four, plus Mao, Marcuse, Rousseau, and Darwin in swimming suits throwing beach balls in the waters of New Orleans.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
I worry that because of local mistakes many will expect the feds to federalize emergencies immediately. In American history crises have led to expansions of government. The Right still hasn't reversed the expansions from the Great Depression (and have no desire to do so).