Iraq War Is Affecting Small State in a Big Way (VT- most deaths per cap.)

[Rose Siding]

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. -- By now, the choreographed ceremonies are as painfully familiar as the arctic chill that crept across the Green Mountains late last month, when 400 more members of the Vermont National Guard were sent to war.

....Soldiers loaded Ryder trucks with olive-drab duffel bags before taking their places in formation. The state's three-member congressional delegation, which voted unanimously against invading Iraq, saluted the departing troops in speeches, but not the mission they are about to undertake.
...
While military service is a source of pride in local communities, the activation of 1,400 troops also has taken a heavy toll on hundreds of families and left small businesses and police barracks understaffed.

But even as flags and yellow ribbons adorn homes here, antiwar activists are uniting. A recent petition drive succeeded in placing a resolution opposing the use of Vermont's Guard in Iraq on the agendas of about four dozen town meetings, which take place statewide on March 1.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9329-2005Feb8.html

[despairing optimist]

1. Does anyone know how many National Guard are left to defend us at home?

I thought that was the purpose of the National Guard, but then, what do I know?

What if something tragic happens here? I mean in the US, though as a NYC resident I'm probably doomed anyway.

[Rose Siding]

2. Senator Byrd brought this up nearly every time he took the floor

and that was back in the run up to the war, before all the stop loss and extended tours. WV, economically oppressed and civic minded, makes a high contribution of bodies to the services. The fire and police stations felt the loss there, too.

[despairing optimist]

3. How many more Vermonters, West Virginians, New Yorkers, and

everyone else will it take before enough people realize what's going on? I'm afraid that the answer is, when the bloodlust is satiated.

I remember when Gerald Ford said, the long national nightmare is over. How wrong he was. It was only getting started.

[Kimber Scott]

4. As long as they keep the carnage off the nightly news... that's how long

it will last.

[Redstone]

5. Vermont's always been that way

A very large percentage of Vermonters fought in the Civil War, too. And most of the others.

Though, being indepent types, they pretty much sat out the Farce of 1812 (it was bad for their trade with Canada).

Redstone