Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Chris Dodd is right that California’s National Guard should be 100% here in California, not over in Iraq in Bush’s war quagmire. Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, a representative from California, retorted that only 10% of the guard is in Iraq.
But that 10% might have proved decisive in saving homes and lives. Moreover, our modern military depends on expensive equipment — which the Iraq War is chewing up.
After Hurricane Katrina, it became clear that local Guard units from the Gulf States had been greatly handicapped by their shortage of equipment. At the time, the Christian Science Monitor reported:
Though the head of the National Guard says he had more than enough troops, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum acknowledges that trucks, bulldozers, and communications equipment “all were in short supply for Katrina.” He met the needs of the recovery by shifting resources among states, but the strain hints at a broader concern about the military’s mechanical workhorses – both here and abroad.
Much of the Guard’s equipment is in Iraq, and the war there has battered the helicopters and Humvees of every service, wearing them out five times faster than normal, by some estimates. The Pentagon says it will take at least two years to return the force to full strength after the war.
That was 2 years ago. It’s unlikely the situation has improved since then for our own, new disaster right here in California, including for our badly needed Calif. Guard.
The Iraq War was a deadly folly from the beginning. And our state political leaders, Gov. Gray Davis and later Gov. Arnold, should have refused to allow the Calif. Guard to be sent into that quagmire.
The National Guard exists to protect Americans, not advance the imperial insanity of a president operating outside the bounds of the U.S. Constitution.
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