[cooper72]

You expect soldiers to go into an area without the right to shoot at the looters and thugs?

Does it take five days to give an order? Why so slow - this the point and you should be asking it and not blaming me.

Your fellow countrymen are needlessly dying - face up to it and make sure it never happens again.

[OpusatFR]

"Does it take five days to give an order? Why so slow - this the point and you should be asking it and not blaming me. "

I'm not blaming you, that's rather silly. It is slow because Governor Blanco is so completely over her head and incompetent. She should have ordered shoot to kill immediately. That would have stopped it and stopped the police force from walking.

The Mayor of NO went through this in 2004, piling everyone into the stadium with the same result. No preparations had been made. Fortunately for them, there was no flooding and no direct hit, just disgruntled New Orleans and....nothing more was done to prepare for the inevitable catagory 4 or 5.

I'm as frustrated as the next person but until you have a grasp of the Federal system, you won't understand. It works exceedingly well when we have competent governors, and we do. Unfortunately, Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the union with a political machine to match.

[misharu]

Coop, honey, you are missing the point. You and the rest of the world are blaiming the FEDERAL government for something that they are legally not able to do UNTIL the Govenor of the state asks for help.

I will repeat what I said in another thread, it is this IGNORANCE of our system of government that allows people of your ilk to make these statements. Please be better informed in the future.

[ArrogantBustard]

Does it take five days to give an order? Why so slow(?)

Ask that question of Governor Blanco.

Ask it again of Mayor Nagin.

Those two people, who are apparently completely incompetent to hold their respective offices, are the people who hold the authority to give orders regarding policing and riot control in Louisiana generally and New Orleans particularly. That authority in now way resides in Washington, DC.

You are posting from Great Britain, so perhaps you can be forgiven for not knowing how governmental authority is distributed in these United States. Now you know, so quit carping.

FWIW, I think they should have given orders on Tuesday that looters be shot on sight. Refusal to give such orders is, however, one of the least of their failures. Their greatest failures are in the realm of planning, which should have been ongoing efforts since Hurricane Camille (at least).