Ethnic cleansing

While residents are having their guns seized 150 or more armed Blackwater mercenaries are on the job in NO. You can be sure they are not there to protect the poor or rescue impoverished victims. They are there to protect individuals wealthy enough to afford them, to protect corporate assets and probably to protect the private, Bush crony and Halliburton affiliated companies selected by Cheney, Inc. for lucrative cleanup and reconstruction contracts.

How is it that Blackwater operatives get to have guns and citizens don't?

Blackwater’s presence disturbs me. Few presences would frighten me more than 150 armed mercenaries operating in my neighborhood who answer only to Republican paymasters. In fact, I don’t know whether I would be more frightened by efficient Blackwater mercenaries or mobs of disorganized looters.

Come to think of it, with the Abu Ghraib tortures in mind and a government that flagrantly holds people indefinitely, without charges, without trials, in Guantanamo, I don’t think I’d be too happy to see combat armed U.S. troops marching down my road either. I don’t trust them anymore.

In NO it seems people are being removed from their homes, reportedly sometimes at gun point and shipped out without being told where they are going. Think of it. You’re yanked from your house in NO (which may even be on dry land) and put on a plane and when you land, you find out you’re in Utah without money and with no way to reach relatives who might have been deported to Texas. You have no idea how the hell you’re going to get home or if home itself will be there when you get back. In a strange place, with no money, are you really free to leave the "shelter"? Or, are you a prisoner?

Personally, unless my house was under water, I think I'd prefer to stay home and risk disease, looters, fire and whatever, than entrust my well being and the security of my property to mercenaries and the feds. If my house was under water, I would prefer to take my chances getting out alone. I'd rather rely on the kindness of strangers than the good will of the authorities that are responsible for this mess. I would not willingly leave my dogs behind.

Once NO is emptied of residents, who is going to look out for the interests of the poor, now concentrated in distant camps? Who will object if part of the reconstruction by the Bush favored companies is to bulldoze the poor neighborhoods while restoring the business base and the neighborhoods of the wealthy?

If the impoverished, largely black population of NO is removed and conditions created that make it impossible for them to return, is that Ethnic Cleansing?

Link to Blackwater article.

Link to Military dictatorship article