| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
22 Feb 2007 12:07:50 PM |
| Object: |
National Guard going to Iraq don't have enough rifles. |
Changing the reservists’ schedules means abandoning previous promises
that they would get several years between deployments.
And the acceleration means that soldiers who usually drill just once a
month and for a few weeks in the summer will have to begin intensive
preparations right away.
“We’re behind the power curve, and we can’t piddle around,” Maj. Gen.
Harry M. Wyatt III, commander of the Oklahoma National Guard, said in
an interview.
He added that one-third of his soldiers lacked the M-4 rifles
preferred by active-duty soldiers and that there were also shortfalls
in night vision goggles and other equipment.
If his unit is going to be sent to Iraq next year, he said, “We expect
the Army to resource the Guard at the same level as active-duty
units.”
....................................................................................................
Capt. Christopher Heathscott, a spokesman for the Arkansas National
Guard, said the state’s 39th Brigade Combat Team was 600 rifles short
for its 3,500 soldiers and also lacked its full arsenal of mortars and
howitzers.
From The New York Times, 2/22/07:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/washington/22military.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
National Guard May Undertake Iraq Duty Early
By DAVID S. CLOUD
WASHINGTON —
The Pentagon is planning to send more than 14,000 National Guard
troops back to Iraq next year, shortening their time between
deployments to meet the demands of President Bush’s buildup, Defense
Department officials said Wednesday.
National Guard officials told state commanders in Arkansas, Indiana,
Oklahoma and Ohio last month that while a final decision had not been
made, units from their states that had done previous tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan could be designated to return to Iraq next year between
January and June, the officials said.
The unit from Oklahoma, a combat brigade with one battalion currently
in Afghanistan, had not been scheduled to go back to Iraq until 2010,
and brigades from the other three states not until 2009.
Each brigade has about 3,500 soldiers.
The accelerated timetable illustrates the cascading effect that the
White House plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq by more than
21,000 is putting on the entire Army and in particular on Reserve
forces, which officers predicted would face severe challenges in
recruiting, training and equipping their forces.
It also highlights the political risks of the White House’s Iraq
strategy.
Sending large numbers of reservists to Iraq in the middle of next
year’s election campaign could drive up casualties among part-time
soldiers in communities where support for the administration’s
approach in Iraq is already tenuous, according to opinion polls.
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Which proves, once again, that the Republicans don't give a ***** about
our troops. They're just political pawns in an obscene Republican game
Harry
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