Translation
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.
“The Vermont National Guard is gearing up for its largest deployment since World War II, according to lawmakers.” – Bennington Banner, Feb. 5
“Oregon's National Guard is in the process of mobilizing for its largest deployment of citizen soldiers since World War II.” – Oregon Public Broadcasting, Feb. 7
'It's the largest aviation deployment in state Army National Guard history, spokesman 1st Lt. Jay Ostrich said Tuesday.” – The Patriot News, Jan. 28
“This is the largest operational deployment of Wisconsin Guard forces since World War II.” – Wisconsin National Guard web site, Feb. 2
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.”
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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.”
Translation
States have been left shorthanded in national emergencies. More to come?
When thousands of Kentuckians lost power for a week following devastating ice storms that hit at the end of January, some 4,600 members of the Kentucky National Guard were deployed around the state. Guards rescued two teenagers from icy waters, saved an elderly couple from carbon monoxide poisoning during a door-to-door check on residents, and worked for weeks removing fallen trees from roads and delivering food and other essential supplies to tens of thousands of residents who were left without electricity following the winter storms.
Some Oregonians are today left wondering if their state would be able to respond as effectively should a natural disaster occur in their mountainous region.
The Oregon National Guard's entire fleet of 12 Black Hawk medevac helicopters and 135 pilots, crew chiefs, maintenance and support staff are training in Oklahoma before heading to Iraq for a 400-day deployment. It leaves the mountainous state with only four pilots and one borrowed helicopter to cover the state's emergency calls, according to a report in the Oregonian.
"I do not know who will fill the void," said mountain rescuer Michael Leming. "Even in perfect conditions it can take hours and hours to get people off the mountain. The reality is people are going to get seriously hurt, and some are not going to make it."
Since 2003, many states have been unable to respond effectively to national emergencies – underscored by the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina – but also during California wildfires and mudslides, and hurricanes and floods in other regions around the country.
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Cash-strapped states have also lost many billions of dollars in equipment through federal appropriation for overseas military operations.
“The governors looked to the National Guard for support in their domestic missions … and in some cases they were handicapped because they didn’t have the equipment necessary to respond,” admitted Maj. Gen. Raymond W. Carpenter, special assistant to the director of the Army National Guard, said at a recent meeting.
Since 2003, state equipment valued at almost $24 billion has been appropriated for the Army Guard, with another $5 billion expected to be appropriated for overseas missions this year, said Carpenter.
But another Guard official said using the National Guard and Reserves is more cost-effective “in these tough budgetary times.”
More causalities anticipated as U.S. engages in Afghanistan
”Afghanistan has deteriorated due to a failure to provide sufficient economic, political and military resources, as well as a lack of coherent policy among allies involved there,” said Vice President Joe Biden on Jan. 26. The Taliban are in "effective control" of significant parts of the country, he added.
An estimated 25,000 additional U.S. forces are expected to deploy to Afghanistan over the next 12 to 18 months, according to defense officials. Some 34,000 U.S. service members currently are there.
"It's going to require ... some additional military forces. There are going to be additional efforts to train their police and to train their Afghan army," said Biden. "And all of that means we're going to be engaging the enemy more."
And the war within ourselves and our communities will increase. Volunteer soldiers are not immune from the horrors of war. Three and four nearly back-to-back deployments into combat and extended tours have become commonplace for National Guard troops. Changing the contract the military has with its citizen-soldiers calls into question whether they are still “volunteers” or hostages to evolving policies.
“When these guys come home they are totally changed,” said a parent* of a Minnesota National Guard member whose son has served two tours in Iraq. (*The parent wished to withhold her name. She received anonymous threats after speaking out previously and her son was warned by his superiors to tell his mother to keep silent.)
“The same guys are being deployed over and over – four and five times. It’s destroying them and their families. For the first year and a half when they come home they’re numbed out. After a year they start to feel the horrible things. There’s a flood of emotions that start coming through.
“Before it gets better it gets really bad for soldiers and their families,” she said. “Reintegration is an unbelievable hell. It’s like being in the eye of a hurricane.”
Some of them don’t make it through the storm.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Feb. 5 that suicides by Utah Guards outnumber those who died in combat. “Since 2005, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the lives of two soldiers from the Utah National Guard. Suicide has claimed 10.”
As of January 2008, National Guards represented 15 percent of the military serving in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional Research Report presented to Congress in January.
With the massive deployments now underway, the percentage of National Guards fighting in Afghanistan will soon reach or exceed 25 percent of the total military force.
Deploying National Guards for the express purpose of safely moving personnel and equipment out of Iraq makes some sense. Americans fighting the current deployments on the state level know that it makes absolutely no sense for a bankrupt nation in freefall to expand an open-ended quagmire in Afghanistan.
 Kathlyn Stone is a Twin Cities, Minnesota-based independent journalist who has covered general news, and business, international trade, and health care news and policies for public and professional audiences since 1980. Articles by Kathlyn Stone at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/KathlynStone |
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