Katrina, General Patton, and Individual Responsibility
How can you resist that title? I took this from Stephen Ambrose's wonderful Citizen Soldiers:
Patton entered the town [of Bitburg, Germany] from the south while the fighting was still going on at the northern edge of town. "In spite of the fact that the shells were falling with considerable regularity, I saw five Germans, three women and two men, re-roofing a house. They were not even waiting for Lend-Lease, as would be the case in several other countries I could mention [including France]." Dozens of GIs make the same point: in Italy and France, the residents left the rubble in the streets, waiting for someone else to clean it up, while in Germany the residents were cleaning up as soon as the battle passed their villages.
Does this make anyone else think of Katrina and New Orleans? I guess they don't call it the French Quarter for nothing.
Craig:
"I guess they don't call it the French Quarter for nothing."
Funny!
September 22, 2006, 7:31 amanonymous:
what utter drivel. I'm not a small L or little L libertarian, but I enjoy reading your stuff and can usuallly appreciate your opinion. In this case your riffing on things in which you know absolutely nothing. Go to Lousiana. Deal with the day to day. Experience it. Then spew out your little Bon Mots and we'll talk.
September 22, 2006, 1:19 pmPatrick:
So, Anonymous, are you saying the situation in NOLA is so base it is beyond comparison to a village that had just experienced the horrific effects of WWII? If anything, the NOLA residents are being given significant leeway and the French, Italians, and Germans should be blasting the comparison as apples and oranges. Now go get to work. Or move.
September 22, 2006, 6:36 pmBrad:
No Patrick... What your missing is that your not in Lousiana. you don't know what's going on, so you can have the 10,000 foot view of history and make funny comments about the French, etc. . So, you may or may not have been able to experience post world war 2 France, but you certainly have the opportunity to experience post-Katrina Lousiana. Rather than reading history and making off base comparisons go spend some time checking out whats going on in Lousiana. Then lets talk. Seriously. I'm not trying to make a left wing or right wing political statement, but simply saying the original post is suffering from a lack of facts and understanding in an effort to make a pithy point.
October 18, 2006, 8:34 am