Posted on 05/27/2007 10:22:35 AM PDT by neverdem
THE National Guard cannot perform both its domestic and overseas missions at the same time, as the recent debate over whether Kansas possessed sufficient National Guard troops and equipment to respond to the tornado that leveled Greensburg has highlighted. To put it bluntly, the members of the Guard cannot protect us here if they are fighting over there.
As this nation conducts what the administration refers to as the global war on terrorism, the stress on the Guard will not change. When the all-volunteer military was created, the National Guard was intended to act as a strategic reserve. It was meant to serve as a bridge to conscription should a protracted conflict occur.
But because there is no likelihood that an actual draft will be reinstated, the Guard is now being used as an operational reserve, alternating deployments with the active force. Even in the event of a withdrawal from Iraq, our ground forces are likely to be called upon to help stabilize other areas of the world. Such potential situations might include a collapse of the government in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
Because the National Guard will continue to be needed overseas, President Bush and the governors should establish in each state an adequately trained, nondeployable Home Guard. These units, consisting of volunteers who possess skills that are central to responding to catastrophic disasters, would supplement the National Guard’s responsibility for homeland defense.
The volunteers would include doctors, nurses, construction workers, firefighters, police officers, communications experts, city planners, engineers and social workers, among others. To enable states to train and equip these units adequately, the president should ask the Congress to increase the budget of the Department of Homeland Security by at least $10 billion, the cost of one month’s operations in Iraq.
President Bush has embraced this idea...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maybe we should stop thinking of the Guard as a free construction crew every time there is a disaster.
Maybe we should start using the Reserves more. We have MP units, and although we lack actual “combat units”, we’ve all been trained on the M-16. Start sending in the Reserves.
Fine...I’m sure Mr. Korb won’t mind volunteering for the Home Guard. These nanny-state know-it-alls are very quick to tell other people to serve, knowing that they themselves have no skills that anyone would find necessary in an emergency. People who have no function in our society except carping about others should be the very last to be housed and fed in dire times. No one will miss them when they are gone.
Lot's of 'em already here.
Good grief, I must be tired.
I violated my own grammar pet peeve!
I did...proudly for over 25 years. Just retired at the end of last month. The Guard was there for me when I was in college and I was there for the Guard when it was time to go to Afghanistan.
Not as many as the guard. There are no combat units within the Reserves, so we aren’t being sent over in the numbers the guard is.
Perpetuating the myth promulgated by Kansas's screwy governor, in concert with the DNC. If you repeat a lie often enough ...
This doesn't make sense. The "Home Guard" idea is very sound, but it doesn't require help from President Bush or anyone else at the federal level -- lots of states have this kind of force, and they don't need federal involvement. If the feds get involved it will become a costly, pork-filled boondoggle.
Tornadoes happen annually in KS - everybody in KS knows this.
Some of the KS Guard are overseas now - everybody in the KS Government should know this.
Planning for the annual tornado season while some of the Guard is overseas is the responsibility of Governor Sebelius (D), not the President.
True. But I work with several Reservists and they're doing some important work. I work with active duty as well, but believe me, some of the work the Reservists are doing is crucial to this mission.
More reason to send in more Reservists. Let the Guard take a break, the Reserves are ready.
Similar numbers to size is probably true, but the guard only has 150K more soldiers. They have people going over for their 3rd deployments, and we have people who haven’t even been on one.
The National Guard is just a enitity waiting to be federalized. This has already been fought out in court. The States need to quit whining and build up their militia like the Constitution says.
Just curious, but what's your field of view on this information? Last FORSCOM ARFORGEN flow chart I saw was pretty balanced with Reserve and Guard units deployed or deploying. Besides, there are few, if any RC BCT or CABs going over that are pure Guard or Reserve. It's almost always a mixture of both that make up those organizations tasked to deploy. Also, while the Army Reserve is comprised of mostly CS and CSS units, they do have three battalions that are combat arms (1 Infantry and 2 Attack Helicopter Battalions).
To put it bluntly, The New York Times is carrying the DNC’s water here and repeating Sibelius’s orchestrated lies.
There were ample supplies and personnel to deal with the storm damage, and Sibelius forgot to mention that she neglected the option of calling on the Guard in neighboring states if she thought she needed more help.
I'm not calling the shots. ;-)
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