National Guard deployments to Middle East historic and alarming

National Guard troops are deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan in historic numbers. Faced with bankruptcy, will states finally demand an end to the costly practice of using citizen-soldiers to fight overseas wars?

There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. 
 
The search for information about the current mass deployments of National Guard troops to the Middle East turned up some surprises. 
 
As he promised voters, the new president has told the Pentagon to plan for a gradual withdrawal from Iraq. Military officials have been quoted saying that National Guard units will be escorting troops and equipment out of Iraq. 
 
But any enthusiasm that the United States is entering a new era of less dependence on “citizen soldiers” to fight wars overseas needs to be tempered by the fact that the draw down in Iraq is congruent with plans for a significant military build-up in Afghanistan. And the National Guard is being positioned to play a much larger role in Afghanistan than in Iraq. 
 
In early 2009, one state after another has announced new National Guard overseas deployments: Minnesota, Wyoming, Vermont, Idaho, Oregon, Michigan, Mississippi, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Montana and others. 
 
And there emerges a pattern in the reports.

Vermont Rep. Peter Welch, who recently visited Afghanistan, said "as many as 1,800 Vermont National Guard soldiers will deploy in November or December to help train Afghan troops and police.”

About 2,000 Idaho guards are scheduled to deploy to either Iraq or Afghanistan next year, according to an Idaho Army National Guard release.

Between 800 and 900 members of Georgia’s National Guard 48th Infantry brigade will depart as early as May for a 10-month deployment to Afghanistan. 
 
The Georgia-based guards are receiving cultural training at “makeshift villages and doing a little bit of cultural-type training that may be a little different than preparing for deployment to Iraq,” said Command Sgt. Major Wesley Dover, who leads one of the regiments. 

“The predominance of our mission is to train the Afghanistan security forces so that they may be able to operate autonomously,” according to a spokeswoman for the Georgia brigade.

If you’re wondering “Déjà vu?,” you’re not alone. 
 
What’s different about these missions? Is the military any better organized, trained, or efficient than before? Does the Pentagon have a clear policy for Afghanistan? New questions being asked more frequently today are: Will we be prepared for disaster relief at home? Can we afford it?
 
Public opposition 
 
National Guard deployments prolong wars and occupation, deepen the country’s debt, and are leaving communities vulnerable to natural disasters. 
 
Movements are underway in many states to push for legislation that will bring the National Guard home from the Middle East, including Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin, and in Washington D.C. 
 
Some maintain that the National Guard’s obligation in the Middle East ended when Saddam Hussein was removed from power in late 2003, the same year the United States took up occupation of his country. 

In approving military action against Iraq in 2002, the U.S. Congress gave the green light to the overseas deployment of National Guard units. The legislation stated that the mission was to remove Saddam Hussein from power and implement United Nations resolutions regarding illegal weapons. 
 
Those missions were fulfilled years ago. "At this point, there is no legal basis for the continued use of the Vermont National Guard in Iraq," said Vermont state representative Michael Fisher who has introduced a bill denying further deployments of Vermont National Guard units to Iraq. 
 
On Jan. 26, peace, labor and veterans groups in Salem, Oregon petitioned the state legislature to give Gov. Ted Kulongoski the authority to withhold Oregon Army National Guard soldiers from returning to Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 7,000 signed the petition, including state representative Carolyn Tomei, and U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader. The coalition has also drafted a bill but needs a legislative sponsor. 
 
Dan Mayhew, parent of a son who is returning to Iraq, said he supported the petition. 

"I'm not an activist, but when they announced they were deploying yet again, and that soldiers with PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) issues would be swept along, I thought I can't keep quiet anymore."

On Feb. 5, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Against the War and other anti-war activists called on Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to stop future deployment of Minnesota National Guard troops to Iraq and bring the Minnesota National Guard troops currently in Iraq home “without delay.”