Welcome Home Troops – New Orleans Update

Thanks for doing time/risking your ass in Iraq and Afghanistan, working to keep a post 911 USA safe & secure.

Don’t worry-The Super Bowl and public affairs will be safe:

In The News

Jan 13, 2025 The Washington Post

How New Orleans failed to protect Bourbon Street from attack, block by block

“The driver sped virtually unimpeded for almost 1,000 feet, plowing through a crowd of people until he struck a piece of construction equipment that happened to be there for a project unrelated to security, according to photographs, videos and witness accounts.”

“Fourteen people were killed and dozens injured.”

Police have previously acknowledged that the driver managed to bypass security safeguards that had been put in place — with one official saying they had a plan and yet “the terrorist defeated it.”

“…The Post’s block-by-block accounting of events on New Year’s Eve and into the next morning found major security lapses and shortcomings in the city’s street-closure plan. Among the findings, the hydraulic metal barricade that was not raised was the only anti-vehicle barrier planned on Bourbon Street itself.”

“There were a number of ways to successfully protect this street from a ramming attack, and it appears that none of them were used,” security expert Don Aviv said after reviewing The Post’s findings.

“Witnesses said that because it was an electric vehicle, the truck accelerated quickly and almost silently down Bourbon Street, the most audible warnings of its advance the sound of it striking people and the screams it left behind.”

“At two separate times in the hours before the attack, the police SUV’s position left a gap of at least 14 feet — twice the width of the seven-foot-wide Lightning — between its front bumper and the nearest obstruction, according to The Post’s examination of visual evidence.

Nice to see members of the US press doing a story on this failure of government at one or more levels.

Love to see newspeople examine the idea of maintaining a giant/$51.6 billion (every 12 months) US Dept. of Homeland Security that allows cartel drugs to show up in all 50 states.

The Oak Bay Starfish Take

The big GWOT (US Marines in Lebanon – 1984) is decades old now. Here at Oak Bay Starfish, we blogged about this on Jan 1st:

No Credible Threat? – Newspeople Play Along By Not Asking Questions

Jan 2nd:

New Orleans – But, We Can Explain

And Jan 7th:

New Orleans – Armed Forces Recruiting Crisis

A Fake War on Terror?

The proud USA version of the War on Terror features:

A giant/$51.6 billion (every 12 months) US Dept. of Homeland Security with more than two decades of experience and lessons learned that was not relevant in preventing fatalities at New Orleans.

Americans being told they faced a life and death situation after 911 that required sending the troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to keep a post 911 USA safe & secure.

The idea that sending troops to Iraq was essential to keep terrorists away, but somehow, cartel drugs are able to show up in all 50 states? Look for newspeople to ask zero questions in this area.

Cartels move product into all 50 states:

DEA High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas:

“…HIDTA-designated counties are located in 50 states…”