The National Guard has bore a large portion of the Bush administration's burden, and the strain is
starting to show:
To counter equipment shortfalls caused largely by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Guard has borrowed more than $500 million worth of equipment from the active duty military to restock its units. Thousands of trucks, Humvees and other supplies have been shifted mostly from inland states' Guard units closer to where storms are more likely to strike.
Even after borrowing millions of dollars in equipment, and abandoning the middle of our country for the remainder of the hurricane season, the National Guard knows more than anyone that they just don't have the resources to deal with an active hurricane season any longer.
According to this article, the National Guard has borrowed nearly 3500 items from active duty troops in Iraq, a ridiculous figure considering that these are all items that should be stateside to begin with.
One Guard document says the states should already have had the equipment as part of their warfighting capabilities, but "due to deployments and stay behind equipment for (Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom), the states are particularly short."
Military units departing Iraq have left hundreds of trucks and Humvees in the war zone, and lost many others due to wear and tear or attacks.
This will unfortunately be a story that remains unnoticed until another disaster hits. The slow draining of National Guard resources is leaving our country especially vulnerable to not only natural disasters, but any form of disaster, man-made or otherwise. These are the kind of decisions our domestic military forces should never have to be in.
If a hurricane hits North Carolina and another one spins toward Texas, "we would have to make some very difficult decisions," Col. Pat Tennis, the National Guard's director of operations, told the Associated Press.
Take a long, hard look at that statement. If there were two natural disasters within 500 miles of one another, our National Guard believes it would be unable to handle the load adequately. What the hell are we going to do if there are two disasters on the East and West coasts simultaneously?
This is a ridiculous situation to be in, and the danger facing us at home is almost overwhelming. Fighting them there so we don't have to here? Bullshit. We are fighting them there and not even able to defend ourselves from natural disasters we know are coming. Does anyone really think we would be able to deal with a true terrorist threat, especially if a concerted effort was made to have multiple points of attack throughout our country?
Our troops deserve better, our families deserve better, and our country deserves better. This is the Bush homeland security plan, and it is about time Democrats started making this the campaign issue when it comes to the ridiculous "Democrats are soft on national security" debate. Welcome to Bush's America, where we have to fly in supplies from Iraq in order to secure New Orleans.
(Originally posted at Deny My Freedom and My Left Wing)