Bush Policies Weakening Guard, Governors Say

[cal04]

Governors of both parties said Sunday that Bush administration policies were stripping the National Guard of equipment and personnel needed to respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies. Tens of thousands of National Guard members have been sent to Iraq, along with much of the equipment needed to deal with natural disasters and terrorist threats in the United States, the governors said here at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.

The National Guard, which traces its roots to the colonial militia, has a dual federal-state role. Governors normally command the Guard in their states, but Guard members deployed overseas in support of a federal mission are under the control of the president. The governors said they would present their concerns to President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday. In a preview of their message, all 50 governors signed a letter to the president opposing any cuts in the size of the National Guard.

"Unfortunately," the letter said, "when our National Guard men and women return from being deployed in foreign theaters, much of their equipment remains behind." The governors said the White House must immediately re-equip Guard units "to carry out their homeland security and domestic disaster duties." Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a Republican and chairman of the governors association, said:

"The National Guard plays an incredibly valuable role in the states. What we are concerned about, as governors, is that when our troops are deployed for long periods of time, and their equipment goes with them but does not come back, the troops are very strained, and they no longer have the equipment they were trained to use." Nearly one-third of the American ground forces in Iraq are members of the Army National Guard.

http://nytimes.com/2006/02/27/politics/27govs.html?hp&ex=1141016400&en=242a634368d8b1a1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[uppityperson]

1. I would be very happy if they stood up and said "no more, bring them home"

[Trevelyan]

2. I think it is going to be the States that help to put a brake on the Bush

Regime. And maybe the States that are beginning to work for Impeachment from the Grass Roots will succeed.

[FloridaPat]

3. I think "destroyed Nation Guard" is a better phrase.

Those poor folks have been through hell while the idiot-in-chief is making a fortune off this.