2.19.2007

New Orleans to Declare War on the U.S.?

This protester's sign made me think of the movie The Mouse That Roared.

It's a 1950's black comedy in which the tiny duchy of Grand Fenwick in the Alps declares war on the U.S. in order to save itself from financial ruin.

Expecting a quick and decisive defeat, Grand Fenwick would then rebuild itself through the largess that the U.S. bestows on its vanquished enemies.

As the whole world has witnessed as a result of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is a city in crisis. More than half of it's population are refugees living elsewhere. The City's infrastructure is still in disrepair. Whole neighborhoods sit as momuments to the devastation of nature and governmental neglect. Lawlessness is at actual war levels. And like Grand Fenwick, New Orleans is at risk economically given its dependence on a single product: partying.

New Orleans needs American war reparations for 1) a Baghdad-type troop surge in order to re-establish basic public safety, and 2) comprehensive redevelopment of the sort the U.S. provided Germany and Japan.

But apparently none of this will happen until the U.S. defeats New Orleans in an actual battle.

Come on New Orleans, let's hear you roar!

4 comments:

  1. Well written. I like it.

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  2. This might actually be possible if it weren't for the fact that the dirty bastards came into people's homes and illegally confiscated everybody's guns. We'd have to try and attack them with our gumbo spoons at this point. That's about all some of us have left now.

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  3. Anonymous3/03/2007

    Interesting comparison of our dilemma and the movie.

    I demand reparations for the Federal Flood that almost destroyed the city and killed so many people. The lack of a timely response to the disaster, and the fact that the dragging out of the repairs amounts to an ethnic and economic "cleansing", makes those actions an attack upon New Orleans.

    I do have a Katana for the war, but it's not much use in trying to hit in DC.

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  4. Good post, good analogy.

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