Ongoing Need Puts Demand On NG

[seemslikeadream]

Chicago Tribune
June 29, 2004


SWEETWATER, Tenn. - Even as the U.S. prepares to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis this week, National Guard units across America are leaving their hometowns for assignment to Iraq.

For more than 50 years, Guard troops in rural east Tennessee trained for wars that passed them by. But hundreds of flag-waving folks lined the streets under gray skies here Friday to say an emotional good-bye to the 1st Squadron of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment as it headed off to war. It is the regiment's first combat deployment since before the Korean War.

"I guess it's now our turn at last," said Sgt. Maj. John Ridgell, 54, a grandfather, school principal, church deacon and sports coach who bid farewell to his family.

Four regiments, with more than 25,000 soldiers, are in or headed to U.S. training sites, with Iraq their scheduled destination by year's end. They will join three Guard contingents already in Iraq with some 15,000 soldiers.

In all, five of these seven Guard units had not seen a combat call-up since World War II.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_demand_062904,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. Hackworth: Sack 'Em and Rack 'Em

June 28, 2004

America would be a whole lot safer if the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, was flying for Virgin Airlines, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was competing on "Survivor." Both war leaders have done so miserable a job honchoing the military side of our critical conflict against global terrorism, and in the process so jeopardized our national security, that they should be sacked for dereliction of duty.

Contrary to continuing political spin, Iraq and Afghanistan both are running sores with little promise of even a long-term turnaround, and our world today is far more dangerous than it was before 9/11. Unless there's a 180-degree change in overall strategy, the USA is doomed to follow the same bloody path through these two brutal killing fields that the Soviet Union took in Afghanistan.

The mighty sword that Rumsfeld and Myers inherited four years ago - the finest military force in the world - is now chipped and dulled. And the word is that it will take at least a decade to get our overextended, bone-tired soldiers and Marines and their worn-out gear back in shape.

Top generals like former NATO commander Wes Clark and a squad of retired and active-duty four-stars warned long before the invasion of Iraq: Don't go there. It doesn't involve our national security. It's not the main objective in our war with international terrorism. Even retired four-star Colin Powell said that if we go to Iraq and break the china, we own it. But know-it-all Rumsfeld and go-along-to-get-along Myers totally ignored this sound military advice.


more
http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView?file=Hackworth_062804.htm