WP: Tiny Corner of La. Mourns 6 Soldiers

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64134-2005Jan10?language=printer

Bradley Bergeron grew up, as they say around here, "way down on the bayou," a sliver of high ground south of town called Upper Little Caillou. Bergeron was no homecoming king, no valedictorian, just a nice kid who blended in with his class. But he was a star on that day last October when the "Black Sheep," this town's National Guard unit, left for Iraq.

The 2nd Battalion, 256th Infantry Brigade's call-up for overseas duty was a big deal. There were parades and speeches. The high school band performed, and the local government handed out American flags. The Black Sheep drew a crowd.

Now this heavily Cajun city of shrimpers and oil riggers, an hour and a half south of New Orleans, is trying to figure out how to handle another communal gathering: a funeral for the boys they just sent off. Bergeron and five of his fellow Louisiana Guardsmen died in an explosion on Thursday in Baghdad while they were searching for weapons stockpiles. Half of them came from Houma, a city of 30,000, and the rest from towns nearby.

After more than a thousand deaths in Iraq, these six losses may give a glimpse of the future. As the United States relies more and more on the National Guard and the reserves, the moments of sharpest misery at home can tend to become concentrated in one spot, rather than spreading out. Troops from the same regions in the Guard and reserves fight together -- and sometimes die together -- unlike in regular military units, which tend to be made up of men and women who come from widely scattered parts of the country.

<snip>

The cluster of deaths in south Louisiana -- the most suffered by a National Guard unit in a single incident during the Iraq conflict -- has stoked the increasingly impassioned debate about the Bush administration's reliance on Guard and reserve troops in Iraq.

[leesa]

1. This is apparently what they want. Quit yer crying.

[alcuno]

2. I feel awful because I feel the same way.

I know I shouldn't, but when I first heard about the Louisiana deaths, I thought "red state." I hope they all find peace with God, because it certainly isn't down here.

[FlemingsGhost]

6. Yup ... just more names for a memorial, at this point.

Chin up, southern Louisiana. There are plenty more future opportunities for you to sacrifice your sons and daughters for U.S. oil industry.

Remember, keep voting Republican!

[AnnInLa]

15. Uh, pardon me,

I live in the bayous of South Louisiana, and have 2 sons. We all vote Democrat and worked hard for Kerry in the past election, along with many other politically astute people here in my red state. There is so much poverty and rampant unemployment, with no priority given to education here, that joining the military is seen as a way out of poverty and stagnation. Do you think Louisiana deserves to have men die in combat because it is a red state?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

20. Shame on you

Shame on all of you who take the occasion of the useless wasting of six young (well, one was 34) lives to make inane, self-serving, uninformed, and meanspirited comments about them and their families.

Shame on you.

You're as bad as some of the ugliest Freepers I've seen. You should go sit in a corner for a while and try to remember what compassion is, that thing that separates us from Fuckface and his thug squatters in the White House.

No, I must correct that. You're worse than the worst Freepers I've seen, because you profess to be Democrats, and, inherent in that is a certain humanity, a sense of yourself among others, that sense that you abdicated with your nasty, brutish comments about six wasteful deaths.

Shame on you.

[Bridget Burke]

16. How the FUCK do you know?

Have you ever known anyone from Southern Louisiana?

And why are you ashamed of your home state? Isn't that what makes you a worthwhile person?

[Erika]

3. Just like in Vietnam

The government kept on saying all lost died for a good cause. No, they didn't.

[ClarkUSA]

4. Hope they have more of a clue now as to what Democrats believe now

and remember when 2006/2008 rolls around.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Hey look it creates jobs

Big money in burials

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

7. this is sad--useless deaths-so sorry for the families

I had a friend who lived in the area and used to visit those bayou areas alot when I lived in N.O.--really nice people live in the area.
(not that this makes any difference but...
For those of you who don't know, the bayou towns are Cajun--not redneck- there is a big big difference--largely French Catholic - not Evangelical born again-)

They were probably so proud their kids were going to make a difference in the world--you know, the parades and everything.
Now the reality and the grief.
Troops use real guns and real people die.


--National Guard were NEVER meant to be used for invasions and occupations.

and now let's hope these folks understand that they cannot entrust the lives of their kids to some rich brat millionaire awol s.o.b.--he couldn't even make it to even one funeral.
He has no problem with sacrificing the lives of the "non rich" to help his corporate agenda.

[frustrated_lefty]

8. Just a few words from New Orleans.

New Orleans invariably votes democrat. Some of our rural cousins don't have time to think about politics. Unfortunately, those cousins outnumber us by a lot.

That aside, it's inappropriate to say folks deserved to die. I can think of maybe 2 people in all of history who needed to die (Hitler and Stalin). And they weren't poor, stupid kids trying to do their duty to their country.

Don't blame the kids for doing what they're told is the right thing to do. Blame the lying bastards in charge and fry their asses.

[el_gato]

9. but if you fail to look past the lies you pay with your life

these people bought into the lies and died because of it

the only good thing that could come out of this is that maybe a few
people in Houma will wake the fuck up.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

21. Those kids

signed up the Army Reserve because it afforded them opportunities they didn't have in that small town. Not one of them had any kind of education, not one of them left behind any kind of promising career.

But one was planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him.

Take your ideology and put it in its proper place right now. They were children, and you're the one who needs to wake the fuck up.

[mcscajun]

10. I can't blame the dead...ever.

I have friends down in Louisiana...some Cajun...a couple not.

Louisiana is way down on the list for $$ spent on education among the 50 states; so far down that when I visited in Mamou some years back, there was a large contingent of folks from "Teach for America" working there.

Those of us who have the benefit of good education and lots of choices shouldn't be looking down on those who don't have the same opportunities. For some of these kids, many probably, serving in the military was their best way up the ladder...maybe their only shot.

Go down to the bayou sometime...see how little these folks have, and who speaks TO them...and for them; then wonder again why they can't see through the lies they're sold every day.

I grieve for the dead, and for their families; yet I hope the tragedy helps to awaken some of those folks.

[Magmadona]

11. Really.

I was born Batonrouge, and some of my family still lives in La and I can safely say that a majority of the people there support Bush's agenda, and haven't learned to look between the lines yet. That is until a child dies.

[QC]

13. Thank you!

Those of us who have the benefit of good education and lots of choices shouldn't be looking down on those who don't have the same opportunities.

That bears repeating.

[tx_dem41]

12. Where in the article does it say that these six voted for a Republican?

In fact the community referenced in the article is in a Blue Congressional District. They just voted against the son of long-time Repub incumbent Billy Tauzin. And, they ought to be damned proud of themselves. But, we "true" Democrats just knee-jerk dump all over them, the dead and their families.

The shortsighted, unfeeling comments expressed by most in this thread are shameful and reflect on nothing more than the callousness that inspired them.

This isn't what a Democratic forum should be about. It should be constructive fully of passion, and thought, and exchange of ideas.

[Bridget Burke]

14. Nowhere at all.

Notice that most of the smug posts were done by DU'ers who've omitted their home states from their profiles.

[tx_dem41]

18. Heh-heh....good point. n/t

[QC]

19. Is this really a Democratic forum?

It has become plain to me, judging from much that is posted here day in and day out, that being anti-Republican doesn't necessarily make one a Democrat, just as being anti-Right doesn't make one a Leftist.

The attitudes that you point out here are truly offensive, but they are becoming the dominant ones at DU. The place seems to be more about who we disdain--rural people, people in the military, religious people, "red states," etc.--than about anything we might believe in.

[tx_dem41]

22. Good points, QC!

The prevailing sentiment is very negative and destructive. Surely, this isn't what the Democratic Party and liberalism are about?!? They surely aren't my idea of either one.

[brentspeak]

23. Agreed. These boards have become infested with radical left-wingers

True red-white-and-blue Democrats have been scarce on these boards since Nov.3rd. Now we've got a ton of angry left-wingers who troll the boards smugly labeling our troops "killers", applauding the Iraqi insurgants who kill them, casting disdain whenever the word "Christian" is mentioned, and advocating that we boycott the "Red" states. It's like Zig-Zag Miller's stereotype of the Democratic Party is bizarrely becoming true.

[AnnInLa]

17. It pains me everytime I see

that smug, condescending attitude of some of you "elite, blue-state libruls" toward the red states, all of which have many libruls just like you.

[brentspeak]

24. I even wonder how many of these people are REAL DU'ers

and not just Freepers trying to turn off normal Democrats from the Democratic Party.

Brentspeak (who lives in NJ, but who thinks looking down upon/boycotting Red states should not even be considered among the Democrats)

[AnnInLa]

26. thanks, brentspeak

I think the condescending attitudes of some here reflect part of the reason for the humongous backlash vote that resulted in a bush win this time. Just finished reading What's the Matter with Kansas, and the author made the point that many people in the heartland just voted for bush because they are so very tired of being looked down upon, laughed at, and considered somehow less of a citizen. After reading so many of the comments from DUers here, it is easy to see that he had a point indeed.

[Bridget Burke]

27. I do suspect some of the posters.....

They appear to be playing the part of Far Left Liberal just a bit too hard.

[Lisa]

28. snobs, more like it -- and they exist across the political spectrum

There are plenty of left-wingers (and I hang out with socialists and Marxists too) who are from working-class roots and would not wish harm to, or disrespect, people who don't have privileged backgrounds. I know there are elitists out there, but they sure aren't exclusive to the Far Left Liberal demographic. (Bush's dad used to deride some of his own supporters, in private!)

Those who are playing a part haven't done their homework, in my opinion. They're just buying into a stereotype (and a cheap one, to boot).

[Just Me]

25. How terribly sad for these families.

I put complete responsibility upon the CIC and his neoCONimperialists for the sacrifice of American lives and treasure that benefits the military-corporate complex.