Paramilitary forces enter New Orleans to restore order

Wow, this is a really sad story. I guess the problems has been deteriorating steadily since the Hurricane, and now the National Guard has to go in. I've heard from a friend working with volunteer groups that there are a lot of aid agencies working in New Orleans, helping people with basic necessities -- as if it were some undeveloped country.

A friend of mine spent some years living in New Orleans, he said that the city was going downhill before the Hurricane even, and it's just become a Soddom & Gommorah (sp?). He said it wasn't likely to recover from Hurricane.

They have to call in the national guard! Where's the police!? Come on! You should have re-established the police force so you wouldn't have to call in 300 guys with M-16s and grenades and stuff. This isn't Iraq!

Dude, be realistic. After the hurricane, everything was gone. And it's still being rebuild. Not everyone is back yet, and you know New Orleans isn't the richest city, definitely not in America, so what do you turn into when you are poor already and you are only getting poorer and desperate and resources are low? Alligators on competition!

If Baghdad, which didn't get a huge flood and storm that turned away most of its population, has been under the control of the US Army and Marine for 3 years already, what'd you expect of New Orleans!

Plus, the breeches are being worked on, the mayor is being reelected, but what else of that city have you heard about? The hotels aren't taking in people anymore. You have half of the city in total ruins (with money physically lost, unrecoverable.)

BTW, anyone know what happening around Mississppi and the other affected areas that went off the radar screen since like.........Day 3?

Above that, there isn't an official death toll from the hurricane either. We may never know the official toll since entire communities were wiped out and the government doesn't seem too intent on finding how many people really died.

Personally i think it's a bad idea simply based on the whole concept of a paramilitary group, paramilitary groups in America are autonomous militias, they have no official loyalties nor legal obligations to either the miltiary or government.

That means they aren't legally compelled to follow orders, this makes such groups, particularly armed groups dangerous.

Player 0 said:

Personally i think it's a bad idea simply based on the whole concept of a paramilitary group, paramilitary groups in America are autonomous militias, they have no official loyalties nor legal obligations to either the miltiary or government.

That means they aren't legally compelled to follow orders, this makes such groups, particularly armed groups dangerous.

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well, the title of the thread may be misleading you a bit. it is actually national guardsmen that are being deployed to new orleans, and they definitely fall under the command of the federal govt. They are not a militia.

I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion. Taking from that BBC article they said "However, a sharp rise in violence that has killed about 50 people this year has led to calls for their return." 50 people murdered in New Orleans in 6-7 months is a good thing. Look at 2004 muders... 264. New Orleans has never been under control. The cowardly showing of half their police department running off during time of crises makes it no wonder that crime was and is rampant. Classifying National Guardsmen as "paramilitary" is a misnomer and needs to be adressed. Paramilitary forces act independently from the military, USNG troops do not, they are soldiers on duty subject to the same UCMJ as us active-duty officers.

From Wikipedia "paramilitary":

There are paramilitary units that are an official legislated arm of the government, anti-government armed units that claim military status, and civilian paramilitary units that are neither, and other groups that are something in between.

Paramilitary groups can serve many different functions. Some are created by governments as paramilitary police (Gendarmerie) or other internal security forces. Some are revolutionary groups using traditional or guerrilla warfare to oppose the government. Others are private militias intended to enforce order without the niceties of the rule of law. Some are commando units created by a state and intended for non-traditional combat missions, operating outside the official military. Other paramilitary groups adopt military organization and aspects of military culture and discipline, but are not intended to fight at all.

Well in that case that definition can't apply to the US National Guard because, also according to wikipedia,

[it] is a component of the United States Army (the Army National Guard) and the United States Air Force (the Air National Guard

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So what do you want me to say?

"Military forces enter New Orleans to restore order"?

:roll: