Guard is short of arms, gear (Va. Nat. Guard)

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

Officials say this hurts training of Virginia troops for active duty

Virginia's problem is temporary, expected to last a year or less, and the Army will make sure state guardsmen are trained properly before they deploy to combat zones, said Maj. Gen. Robert B. Newman Jr., the state's top military officer.

Virginia's Army Guard is short of:

heavy machine guns;
squad automatic weapons;
night-vision goggles;
assault carbines;
GPS-based systems to keep track of units in combat;
secure satellite radio systems.

"Those are just some we know right now," said Lt. Col. Charles Taylor, the Virginia Guard's logistics director.

"There isn't a state right now that has more than probably 64 to 65 percent of the equipment they need," said Emanuel Pacheco, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon.

"The National Guard has never been at 100 percent of its equipment," Pacheco said, "but ideally you want to be at 80 percent of what you need to get the mission done."




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This is absolutely infuriating. This is before Bush veto's funding, then will try to blame us for their lack of equipment (although troops already there don't have enough, now), and to boot, he sends MORE troops?

Can't our governors say NO?

We need our guards here, we don't have enough equipment already here in the states, let alone guardsmen. We are already in such dangerous territory w/ wildfires right now and hurricane season is around the bend. This is very bad news for the security of US citizens. Who is going to stand up for our troops? Who will stand up for us citizens?!

When will this stop, REALLY, when?!

except maybe the sat radios and GPS if they
weren't going to be in COMBAT in IRAQ

And I suppose they'll send them in ill-equipped.
I wonder if they'll get body armor at least?

I imagine Jim Webb will have a freak out scene over this and John Warner, too!

It's time and past time to dismantle our standing armies. They're nothing but a hugely expensive budget suck that doesn't produce even pennies on the dollar in benefits for the investment.

I hope this is a joke.

in the world done us? It's been fought to a stand still by a couple of semi-organized bands of Iraqis that depend on improvised weapons to defeat an army that spends more than the rest of the world combined.

And just who is the Offense Dept. Offending us against? Russia? China? Doubt it cause the world is too economically intertwined now for nations to attack each other. With the possible exception of OUR administration most of the world now sees war as so last century, just out of date.

If you look at war from an economic standpoint, since the end of WWII it has been the United States that has been the attacker against other, smaller nations. Usually these attacks have been with the intent of advancing the profits of American corporations. In fact that is exactly the reason the US has, in the past century attacked the countries of central and South America fifty two times. To insure the profits on American based corporations.

We now spend three quarters of a TRILLION dollars a year on war. All money going to enrich corporations, and all money that we don't have, but borrow from other nations. Just how much longer do you think we can keep this up? More to the point, how much longer will those other nations keep financing our military misadventures before the no longer buy our bonds and our economy falls off the cliff?

No my friend. To believe that war is a cure for anything anymore is pure nihilism. To think that this century could be a copy of the last century, where violence is an acceptable form of negotiation denies the wishes of the rest of humanity. It is very possible that THIS war will be the LAST war.

And then what will we spend the $750,000,000,000,000 on? Maybe health care for all. How about universal education thru college? That would certainly make us competitive again.

But to be honest, all this is just wishful thinking. The war manufacturers own the government so change will not be possible. We'll be stuck in this downward spiral until we splash on the tile floor of bankruptcy.

Betcha, they're not short on anything they request.