National Guard "not ready".

In addition to all the other miserable things that the war in Iraq has produced, it has put 88% of all National Guard units in the United States in a "not ready" status. The Commission on the National Guard and the Reserves just issued its report to Congress to that effect. (www.cngr.gov). We all knew that the Guard was in pretty rough shape when Katrina hit but it has apparently gotten much worse. Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org) also deals with this.

I manned a "lit table" in Keene NH every saturday for a year before the November elections and I noticed that support for ending the war really exploded after Katrina. The people I talked to said that their minds were changed about the war when they realized that the US no longer had the capacity to take care of its own.

It seems to me that when we are making the case to our congressmen and women about getting out of Iraq, we should put some emphasis on this since it tends to localize the impact of this war.

The National Guard IMO was created to protect the Nation from within. To be a body that was always here on the ready to aid in whatever harm comes our way. IMO that is the purpose of the National Guard. The US Army and Marines are for fighting in some foreign country and for defending the US from foreign enemies. The National Guard should only be called (off to war) in a real emergency. It should not be used as a major occupying Army in some god-forsaken hell hole. Republicans have pretty much screwed over the Guard and don't really give a damn about it..

Department of DEFENSE, not Department of OFFENSE

heaping steaming pile o' 'doo'.

and the greatest page

:kick: and R

Thank you for this, this has to be shouted from the rooftops. This is a travesty.

I applaud your "lit table" work Raven and want to say it is very nice to read your posts on these forums again.

Alyce

That reminds me of an episode of Boston Legal (Season 2) about the screwing of the National Guard or generally of people who never got told the whole truth when they signed up and how the public that likes to talk about honoring the troops just doesn't care at all.

Things that were brought up before the speech in the video:
- they didn't sign up for the dangerous things they eventually had to do (people were assured that they wouldn't see combat)
- their parents had to pay for the body armor because they weren't only sent into situations they weren't really trained for, but they weren't even given proper equipment
- They were assured that they could leave after 1 year but because of the stop/loss programme, their duty got that much extended that the army could keep them there for more than 25 years.

Isn't that awful? So yes, this episode got it right and it's sad that such a thread died so quickly.
The public finally should take a look and like Shore insinuated, it's about time we get angry.


video here, I thought it was quite good: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/03.html#a5684

Transcript because of the bad quality of the video, maybe someone else has a better version:


Alan Shore: But whether one is for or against the occupation and let’s assume judging from your tie one is, that does not exempt the military from a duty to be honest with its soldiers.
Private Elliot was told he’d serve a year. He was told he wouldn’t see combat. Okay, unexpected stuff happens, he did see combat. Fine! But, he was sent into combat with insufficient backup, he was sent in to perform duties for which he was never ever trained! He wasn’t given the most basic of equipment. And then, after his tour of duty was up, they wouldn’t let him leave. He never assumed those risks by enlisting.
Over extended, under equipped, non-trained. He never signed up for that. And now he’s dead. And aside from his sister, nobody seems to care. We talk about honoring the troops. How about we honor them by giving a damn when they’re killed?
Our kids are dying over there. In this country, the people, the media, we all just chug along like nothing is wrong. We’ll spend a month obsessing about Terri Schiavo. But dare we show the body of a fallen soldier? The most watched cable news station will spend an hour a night on a missing girl in Aruba, but God forbid we pay any attention when kids like Private Elliot killed in action...

Judge Clark Brown: You’re off the point.

Alan Shore: I’m not off the point. We’ve had two thousand American trees fall in that forest over there and we don’t even know it. Not really. But, maybe we don’t wanna know about our children dying. So lucky for us, this war isn’t really being televised. We’re not seeing images of soldiers dying in the arms of their comrades, being blown apart on the streets of Baghdad. But they are! By the thousands! And all the American public wants to concern itself with, is whether Brad and Angelina really are a couple. At least with Vietnam we all watched and we all got angry!

Judge Clark Brown: What does this have to do with the death of Private Elliot?

Alan Shore: Private Elliot is dead in part because we have a people and a government in denial. We currently have no strategy to fight this war. We have no timetable for getting out. Some of these troops could be extended twenty plus years! Their mothers and fathers have to spring for body armor because the army doesn’t. And they’re getting killed! And we as a nation in denial are letting them. We simply don’t seem to care. Well she does. She’s in this courtroom honoring one dead soldier. That’s a start.

for quite a long time...probably longer than you have. I posted this in order to communicate some information...but, then ,I guess there are people out there who know everything.

more on the order of the bush WH thinking they can continue with troop build ups while ignoring the effect it has on unit readiness.

When my husband got back in June '06, his unit was broken up and restructured. What does this accomplish? It makes him immediately redeployable. However, he says that because of the restructuring, his unit is in no way ready to do so.