Airborne Troops Alerted For Katrina Duty

Reuters reports 3,000 regular Army soldiers may be sent to help end lawlessness in New Orleans:

The Army has put on alert roughly 3,000 active-duty ground troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be prepared to deploy to New Orleans to help bring security to the flooded city amid looting and lawlessness, said an Army official, who asked not to be named.

The brigade-sized force, likely to be from the 82nd Airborne Division, would engage in crowd control and site-protection activities, the official said.

U.S. law bars active-duty military troops from engaging in domestic law enforcement, but the Army official said crowd control and site-protection were not defined as law enforcement activities.

The official said another 240 troops from the Army's 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, also were going to the region.

The military will do what they can but, without money from us all, the evacuees will quickly exhaust all of the resources the American Red Cross and other agencies have available. Please look into your
hearts and into your wallets and make a donation to help these people stay alive now.

Technorati Tags: flood aid, Hurricane Katrina

Comments

[Basilides]

Thanks for info -- I've posted it, and a link to you, on my blog for military Christians. (I'd have done that "Trackback" trick if only I could figure it out...sorry!).

More military are so desperately needed in New Orleans.I hope they are immediately activated before the situation gets even worse.

[Tomorrowist]

I treid to post this at Command Post, but could not.

This kind of bugs me. If we are to have federal troops enforcing local laws, shouldn't someone -- and not just anyone -- declare martial law first?

If our troops need shelter, will they wait for an invitation, or just find some abandoned house?

I understand that times are tough. I even feel sorry for the souls that are so depraved that they see fit to rape and pillage. But the strength of our society rests on the stability of our legal system. The erosion of our civic structures is causing more long term harm than any wind or water possibly could.