by Col. W. Patrick Lang (Ret.)
The “worm has turned” in the national media.
|
Reporters in the field in New Orleans and Mississippi are visibly and audibly enraged at the tragedy and destruction of what is before them. The anger filling all but the most abject media servants of the prevailing incompetence is most impressive.
Nevertheless, the bureaucracy and the ruling politicians are still doing everything they can to “spin” the situation in the way that commanders do in “after action reports” to make themselves look as good as they can manage in the face of evidence of their incompetence, neglect or cowardice.
Their remaining allies in the media are still at it. On a national news show this Sunday morning two participants known for their close government relations, both from the national media, did their best to “blame the victims.”
What was said? In response to a discussion of government failure, indifference and incompetence as a source of the protracted suffereing of the people of New Orleans, both of these people implied that it was the backwardness and injustice of society in these states that formed the background and root cause for what has happened.
We have seen a lot of cynical, methodical manipulation of public opinion in recent years. Some of this has been the fruit of the emergence of a “doctrine” of deliberate “Information Operations.” Falsehood or distortion injected into the “public mind” has become a routine of government. In addition, some of the management of information has been accomplished through the simple mechanism of threatening and intimidating media executives (overtly or implicitly) with denial of access to sources of information.
Not surprisingly, those implicated in the guilt over this present catastrophe are fighting back. Reporters from Fox News have raged against what they saw in New Orleans. The anchor talking to them did everything but disown them. Everywhere the government is defending itself as best it can by blaming state government, by blaming local government.
Now they are going to blame the people of Louisiana and Mississippi.
BELOW: Emory Upton and the “active duty force”
Emory Upton and the “active duty force”
“One lasting lesson that has to be drawn from the Gulf Coast’s misery is that from now on, the National Guard must be treated as America’s most essential homeland security force, not as as some kind of military piggy bank for the Pentagon to raid for long-term overseas missions. America clearly needs a larger active-duty Army.
It just as clearly needs a homeland based National Guard that’s fully prepared and ready for any domestic emergency.”
NY Times, 2 September,2005
Download Upton.pdf
Pat Lang
Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
I just posted this in the open thread:
National Guard played cards while people died
New Orleans deputy police commander W.S. Riley launched a bitter attack on the federal response to the disaster though he praised the way the evacuation was eventually handled.
His remarks added to controversy over the government handling of the crisis as New Orleans descended into anarchic chaos after Katrina swamped the city’s flood defences. Thousands are feared dead in the disaster.
National Guard commander, Lieutenant General Steven Blum, defended his force saying it had been slow to move into New Orleans because it did not anticipate the collapse of the city police force.
Riley said that for the first three days after Monday’s storm the police and fire departments and some volunteers had been alone rescuing people.
“We expected a lot more support from the federal government. We expected the government to respond within 24 hours. The first three days we had no assistance,” he told AFP in an interview.
Riley went on: “We have been fired on with automatic weapons. We still have some thugs around. My biggest disappointment is with the federal government and the National Guard.
“The guard arrived 48 hours after the hurricane with 40 trucks. They drove their trucks in and went to sleep.
“For 72 hours this police department and the fire department and handful of citizens were alone rescuing people. We have people who died while the National Guard sat and played cards. I understand why we are not winning the war in Iraq if this is what we have.”
Riley said there is “a semblance of organisation now.”
That is about as stupid a statement as any military person could make.
The Army is the only institution there is that can move into a piece of geography in which there is no government or all government has broken down. There is a reason why it has that capability.
The reason is frequently that local governments are overwhelmed, and when that happens, the police force is one of the clearest examples of failure. Guess what happened when we invaded Iraq? Same kind of shit.
Blum is a jumped up civilian carrying more stars than he is competent to wear. He came out of the National Guard, not the active military. His appointment was political, not military. With that statement he demonstrated his incompetence and gave the active duty military another good reason to distrust the Reserves and National Guard leadership.
So, how well is that spin working? Here are some new poll numbers:
Fifty-one percent rated the federal response as not so good or poor and 48 percent said it was excellent or good. But two-thirds said Washington should have been better prepared.
48% said it was “excellent”?? What are those people smoking? Holy flipping crap.
I guess they think that allowing people to starve and die for days on end is just an excellent thing to do.
for a swath of the population, the poor, the elderly, the sick, the abandoned, local and state government will be blamed for. . . higher gas prices.
This is the result of years of work on the part of conservatives, to indoctrinate even the poor, the elderly, the sick and the abandoned with the “ownership society”. Even if we did not hear that precise label, the idea that “real” Americans don’t need help, that the greater good is corporate interest and that greed is not only good, it is downright righteous. Supplies are running out, get it while it lasts.
The ownership society works because it meshes perfectly with a natural defense mechanism – “this will never happen to me, I know better, I’d do more or I’d do it differently”. I see this across the country in my work. It is not new, but it has been growing steadily since 9/11. It feeds on fear, stroked and stoked by visions of mushroom clouds and terrorists at the local strip mall.
When I was a kid, my younger brother believed that when he closed his eyes he was invisible. The “ownership society” is the same thing, only with adults. It’s like people who believe that jumping up in a falling elevator will save them.
Since the premise is irrational, don’t expect the response to be any less irrational. We can’t reach their heads, only their fears. Who will signal the all clear? When will “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” replace “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
Next bush will offer the hurricane victims a tax holiday on their interest income.
This is a needed debate. Should guard members be used in Bush’s imperialist wars. I’m sure the guard members would appreciate focusing on the job they signed up for instead of being shipped out for the Great War to make America Unsafe and Create Terrorists
NO WAY.
And it was embarrassing to see a national guard — I don’t know — colonel or general — today on TV end his comments by asking people to sign up with the National Guard to they could help people like the guard is doing in NOLA right now. He gave out the Web URL too.
Pat’s too modest to say so here, but he is posting his own Civil War novel at his blog.
I’ve read the first two chapters. They’re in PDF format, and easy to print out.
It’s terrific writing! My daughter read them to and wants MORE! It’s about how intelligence officers operated during the Civil War, and much more … it also gives a different view of the South’s grievances before and during the war.
GO HERE and look for Chapter 1. I think he’s posted through Chapter 4.
Col. Lang,
I just wanted to say to you what I just said to Larry Johnson… I want to thank you and Larry Johnson both once again for stepping up and speaking out. You two add a great deal of experience and knowledge to back up and fill out what so many of us know in our guts and our ability to read between the lines… or in this case and some others… the bald face lies that are proven right in front of our faces.
I am glad you and the others are on our side. Together we will reclaim America and it’s promise.
Peace,
Andrew
I posted this in another thread but want to make sure the word gets out.
Josh at TPM points out that the same bullshit story that appeared briefly in WaPo, about how Blanco supposedly didn’t declare a state of emergency in a timely manner, is now appearing in newsweek:
Let’s squash this meme, folks!